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MITHRIDATES MINOR; 



AN ESSAY ON LANGUAGE. 



BY 



HENRY WELSFORI), ESQ. 



'OvS/jLara $dp§apa ht)ttot a'AAa£r?s, 

Elal yap bvSixara 7rap' htaffTois &e6a8oTa 

Avva/xiv iv reAercus 1i.p*p7}TOV ex ovra - Pseixus, 7. 




LONDON: 
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 

PATEBNOSTEB-BOW. 

1848. 






London : 

Spottiswoode and Shaw, 

New-street- Square. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Page 

1. General reasons which justify publication - xxiii 

2. Particular views of the author respecting Philology - - ib. 

3. All the aid has not been derived from the Oriental languages 

which they are. capable of affording - xxiv 

4. Lennep — Herasterhuys — Primitive Greek roots - - ib. 

5. Words from the Shemitic Languages adopted by the Greeks xxv 

6. Mode of their adoption, and changes produced in them - xxvi 

7. List of Sanskrit Nouns adopted by the Greek and Latin - xxvii 

8. The change produced in their terminations infers the existence 

of some cause of a very peculiar nature - xxviii 

9. Sanskrit crude nouns destitute of gender, case, and number- xxx 

10. The addition made to them by the Greeks was that of the - 

Personal Pronoun, os, -rj, -ov - - - - xxxi 

11. List of Sanskrit Verbal Roots adopted by the Greek and 

Latin ------- xxxiii 

12. The addition made to them by the Greeks and Romans was 

that of the Auxiliary Yerb To be, by the aid of which the 
Sanskrit Verb itself is formed - xxxv 

13. Application of the Baconian mode of reasoning to Language 

— Deficiences and attainments of the Greeks - - xxxvi 

14. Hindu Philosophy — Greek Sophists — Schoolmen of the 

Middle Ages ------ xxxviii 

15. Political reasonings of the Greeks — Slow progress of Statis- 

tics, and Political Economy - ib. 

16. Observation and experiment the only secure basis of Physics xxxix 

17. Geology — Cosmogony — Comparative Anatomy — Cuvier - xl 

18. The investigation of what is fact, almost, appears to constitute 

a peculiar science ----- xli 

19. The different rate of progress of Metaphysical and Physical 

knowledge, illustrated by a reference to the Economical 

annals of England - xliii 

20. Mr. Watt— The Steam-engine — Its effects- - - x lr 

21. Application of steam to the production of locomotion — Pro- 

phecy in Darwin's Botanic Garden - - - x lvi 

a 2 



IV CONTENTS. 

Page 

22. Important consequences likely to be the result of the invention 

of railroads. Its effect on Knowledge - xlvii 

23. On Philanthropy, religious Liberality, and general Civilisation 1 

24. Prospect of the rapid and indefinite enlargement of the human 

mind — Passage from Condorcet - ib. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE PKIMTTIVE LANGUAGE OF MANKIND. 

i. Positive assertion on this subject in the Book of Genesis — 

Different views of Bentley, and Sir William Jones - 1 

n. Mode proposed of ascertaining some of the oldest existing lan- 
guages - - - - - - -2 

in. Reasons for believing that there are at least seven as old as 

the Hebrew - - - - - - 3 

1. Egyptian - - - - - - ib. 

2. Sanskrit - - r - 4 

3. Arabic - - - - - - ib. 

4. Persic - - - - - - 5 

5. Turkish - - - - - - ib. 

6. Syriac - - - - - - ib. 

7. Greek - - - - - - ib. 

iv. All these probably formed parts of the Primitive language which 

contained the roots of all the languages since spoken - 6 

v. The Indo-European class of languages of Adelung - - ib. 

vi. Proposed arrangement of the author - - - - 7 

vii. The Arabic or Shemitic family of languages - - 8 

vin. The characteristics of that family - - - - 9 

ix. The Sanskrit, or Indian family of languages characterised - 10 



CHAP. II. 

ON THE OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS OF ANY EXISTING ALPHABETICAL 
CHARACTERS. 

i. Pliny's account of ancient alphabets - - - - 13 

ii. Contains little that is historical, and to be relied on - - 14 
rii. We are in many respects better able to investigate the antiquities 

of the Greeks, than the Greeks themselves were - - ib. 

iv. Coincidence between European and Chinese Chronology - 16 

v. Account of the ancient modes of writing in China - - ib. 

vi. Identity of hieroglyphic characters in China and Egypt - 17 
vii. Letters derived by various Asiatic alphabets from Chinese hiero- 
glyphics - - - - - - -18 



CONTENTS. V 

Page 

viii. The Kou-Ouen or oldest Chinese writing - - - 19 

ix. The Oighur alphabet of fourteen letters - ib. 

x. The Runic, an Asiatic alphabet - - - - 20 

xi. Identity of the Northern Woden with the Indian Budha - 21 

xii. Two Runic letters on a Parthian gem - - - - 22 

xiii. The names of two of the Runic letters, Persic words - - 24 



CHAP. III. 

ON DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN PRODUCED 

BY DIFFERENT MODES OF WRITING, THAT IS, FROM RIGHT TO LEFT, OR 

FROM LEFT to RIGHT. 

i. Unwritten languages least changed — Many changes appear to 

have been produced by the art of alphabetical writing itself 26 
ii. Three leading modes of writing — from top to bottom, from 

right to left, and from left to right - - - - 27 

in. Tien, Chinese, and Neit Egyptian — Neitha, Egyptian and 

Athene, Greek .---..- ib. 
iv. Tien, Chinese — Tihan, Sanskrit — and Dihan, Greek, — Dihan, 
Greek, and JSTahid Persic — Nihad, Persic, Nature- — Tabiat, 
Arabic, and Tabiti, Scythic - - - - 28 

v. Mitra, Persic, and Artemis, Greek — Misitra, Sparta - - 29 

vi. Rama, Sanskrit, and Amor and Amar, Latin — Dipuc, Sanskrit, 
and Cupid, and Cupidus, Latin — Rhm, Arabic, and Mhr, 
Persic, Love - - - - - - ib. 

vn. Laib, the heart, Hebrew, and Bal, Chaldee - •> -30 

viii. Sar, the head, Persic, and Ras, Arabic — Kid, Arabic, and Dike 

Greek — Chlom, Coptic — and Moloch, Hebrew - - ib. 



CHAP. IV. 

ON DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN PRO- 
DUCED BY THE SUBSTITUTION OF ONE LETTER FOR ANOTHER. ORIGIN 

OF DIALECTS. 

i. Letters inconveniently alike, when frequently mistaken for each . 

other, produce a Dialect - - - - - 31 

ii. Great fluctuations in Alphabets before they became finally 

settled - - - - - - - ib. 

in. Hebrew Daleth (D) and Raish (R) confounded - - 33 

iv. Hebrew Samech (S) and final Mem (M) confounded - - ib. 

v. Hebrew final Caph (Ch) and Daleth (D) confounded - - ib. 

vi. Arabic Re (R) and Ze (Z) confounded - - - 34 

vn. Sanskrit S, and Roman R, confounded - - - ib. 

a 3 



Vi CONTENTS. 

Page 

vin. The Duillian Inscription — S, R, and D - - - 37 

ix. The Spartan Decree against Timotheus of Miletus - - 38 

x. Greek Alpha and Rho, confounded - - - - 39 
xi. Greek Delta and Lambda confounded — SS, the Greek letter 

Xi, and the Roman X - - - - 40 

xn. Greek Iota, and Lambda, confounded - - - 41 

xiii. Etruscan Phi, and Chi, confounded - - - - 42 



CHAP. V. 

ON THE SPOKEN EANGUAGE OF CHINA. 

I. Extravagant and unfounded statements respecting almost every- 
thing connected with China - - - - 43 

n. Dr. Marshman's comparison of the Chinese with the Sanskrit 

and the Hebrew - - - - - - 44 

in. Observations on it - - - - - ib. 

iv. List of Chinese words from the Names of the 214 Keys, with 

their Analogies in other Languages -r - - 45 

v. List of Chinese words from the Glossary in Du Halde - 46 

vi. List of Chinese words from the Index to De Guignes - - 47 
vn. Two spoken Languages in China, one of which may be denomi- 
nated the Literary — The 330 Chinese words, and 300 Greek 

roots - - - - - - - 48 

vin. Abstract of Chinese Grammar - - - - 49 

* ix. The Nominative Case - - - - - - ib. 

, . x. The Genitive - - ib. 

xi. The Dative - - - - - - - 50 

xn. The Accusative, Vocative, and Ablative - ib. 

xrn. Adjectives - - - - - - - ib. 

xiv. Personal Pronouns - - - - - -51 

xv. Conjugation of Verbs - - - - - ib. 

xvi. Artificial Classification in the first instance is favourable to the 
advancement of knowledge, but tends to retard it when we 

forget that it is artificial - - - - - ib. 



CHAP. VI. 

ON THE LANGUAGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT — THE COPTIC AND SAHIDIC. 

I. The Egyptians claimed the honour of being the inventors of 

Letters - - - - - - -53 

:i. Memnon the Egyptian — Cecrops the Athenian — Linus the 
Theban — Palamedes the Argive — Assertion of Josephus 
that Homer left no written works - - - - 54 

:i. Singular fact that no Egyptian Monuments prior to the accession 

of the Ptolemies contain Alphabetical Inscriptions - - ib. 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Page 
iv. Unsatisfactory account of Herodotus of the Egyptian mode of 

writing - - - - - - -55 

v. Remarks on the Egyptian Alphabet - - - - 56 

vi. List of Coptic and Sahidic Words, with their Analogies in other 

Languages - - - - - - - ib. 

vn. Abstract of Coptic Grammar — That Language has much in com- 
mon with the Shemitic Class . - - - - 59 

viii. Adjectives and Participles never vary their termination - 60 
ix. Distinction of Gender in the different Persons of the Verb - 61 
x. Egyptian Verbs have five Tenses, but three Forms of the Fu- 
ture - - - - . - - - ib. 

xi. The Passive Voice - - - - - - ib. 

xii. Formation of the Preter-pluperfect Tense - • - 62 



CHAP. VH. 

ON THE HEBREW LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

i. Age of the Hebrew Alphabet - - - - - 63 

ii. Probable date of the composition of the Book of Psalms - 64 

in. Hebrew Nouns ----_> $ # 

iv. Adjectives - - - - - - - ib. 

v. Verbs - - - - - - -65 

vi. Tenses of the Verb - - - - - - ib. 

vn. List of Hebrew words with their Analogies - ib. 



CHAP. VIII. 

ON THE ETH10PIC LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

I. Ethiopia was one of the countries designated in the Old Testa- 
ment by the name of Cush - - - - - 69 

ii. Herodotus's account of the Ethiopians - - - 70 
in. That of Diodorus - - - - - -71 

iv. His description of their Hieroglyphic Characters - - ib. 
v. Neither Herodotus nor Diodorus mentions Letters — Conjec- 
tures as to the Ethiopic and Amharic Alphabets - - 72 
vi. Analysis of the Ethiopic Alphabet - - - 73 
vn. Abstract of Ethiopic Grammar - « - - 74 
viii. Many of their Verbs derived from Nouns - - - ib. 
ix. List of Ethiopic Words - - - - - 75 

x. The Language a Shemitic one, and little more than a Dialect 

of the Hebrew, or Chaldee - - - - - 76 

a 4 



Till COM TENTS. 



CHAP. IX. 



ON THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE, OR THE EASTERN AND WESTERN ARAMEAN. 

Page 

i. Difficult to discover any Language peculiar to Assyria - 78 

ii. Specimens of the Syriac, Assyrian, Chaldee, and Samaritan — 

The Peshito, or Old Syriac Version of the New Testament - ib. 
in. The Philoxenian, or New Syriac Version - - - 79 

iv. The designations of some of the Officers of Sennacherib are not 
proper names, but the names of offices, and therefore Assy- 
rian words - - - - - - -80 

v. We know no Language but the Chaldee peculiar to Assyria - 81 



CHAP. X. 

ON THE PHOENICIAN AND PUNIC LANGUAGES. 

i. The Phoenicians have left inconsiderable remains of art, science 

or literature - - - - - - 82 

ii. Herodotus' s account of their origin - - - - ib. 

in. Curious passage of the Prophet Isaiah - - - 83 

iv. The antiquity of Tyre probably greatly exaggerated - - ib. 

v. The palm tree, the armorial bearing of the Phoenicians, appears 

to have been a play on their name - - - - 84 

vi. Conjecture as to what the Phoenician letters really were — He- 
rodotus' s description of them - - - - 85 

vii. Diodorus's account - - - - - - 86 

viii. The claim of the Phoenicians to be regarded as the inventors of 

alphabetical writing does not appear to be well founded - ib. 
ix. Tradition of the building of Carthage - - - - 87 

x. Extreme difficulty of discriminating the dialects of the Shemitic 
from the words transmitted by the Greeks and Romans — . 
etymology of Carthage and Carthagena - - - 88 

xi. Kirchadashah in Phoenician characters from a Carthagena medal 

— Hanno — Hannibal — Hasdrubal — Adherbal — Maharbal 89 



CHAP. XI. 

ON THE ARABIC LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

i. The Arabic alphabet at an early period probably corresponded 

with the Hebrew - - - - --91 

ii. The letters actually in use derived from the Cufic - - ih 



CONTENTS. IX 

Page 

in. Arabic nouns - - - - - - 92 

iv. The signification of Arabic verbs modified without the use of 

prepositions and adverbs - - - - - ib. 

v. Examples of that modification - - - ib. 

vi. Conjugations of the Arabic verb - - - - 93 

vn. Arabic causative verbs formed by prefixing A to the root - ib. 

viii. ' by prefixing T to the root - 94 

ix. List of Arabic words with their analogies in other languages - 96 



CHAP. XII. 

ON THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

i. Remarks on alphabets in general - - - - 101 

ii. The Sanskrit alphabet appears to be mentioned by Diodorus 

Siculus ---_-__ 102 
in. The languages of India known very slowly to Europeans - 103 
iv. Anquetil du Perron - - - - - - ib. 

v. Mr. Halhed the first European Sanskrit scholar — His account 

of the language - - - - - - ib. 

vi. Literal meaning of the word Sanskrit - - - 104 

vn. Sanskrit Nouns - - - - - -105 

viii. Pronouns - - - - - - 106 

ix. Verbs - - - " - - ib. 

x. Moods and Tenses - - - - - 107 

xi. Origin of the Sanskrit verb - - - * - 1 08 

xii. The account examined and refuted - - - - 109 

xiii. List of Sanskrit words which are at once nouns and verbs - 110 
xiv. Observations on it- - - - - -112 

xv. Nouns are necessarily older than verbs — Mode in which the 

significations of the former are transferred to the latter - ib. 
xvi. The same subject further illustrated - - - 113 

xvn. The Greek and Latin derivations from the Sanskrit Dhatos 
prove that they must be coeval with the great body of the 
language - - - - - - -115 

xviii. Coincidences in the mythology of Hindustan and Greece — 
The Sanskrit and Homeric epithets of Saturn — The three 
steps of Vishnu and Neptune - - - - 116 

xix. The Sanskrit the parent of the Greek and Latin - - 117 

xx. The iEolic Digamma in Hindustan - ib. 

xxi. The Doric R, redundant - - - - - 118 

xxii. Anomalies in the Sanskrit as numerous as in Greek and Latin ib. 
xxiii. Grammar in Hindustan, while it pretends to be a revelation, 

has assumed the appearance of an occult science - - 119 

xxiv. The Sanskrit verb really consists of an unvarying root joined 

to the tenses of the Auxiliary Verb To be - . - 120 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAP. XIII. 

ON THE MEDIAN LANGUAGES — THE ZENDISH AND PEHLVI. 

Page 

i. Specimens of the Zendish and Pehlvi from Adelung - - 122 

ii. Median words from Herodotus and Strabo - ib. 

in. Zendish alphabet and words - 123 

iv. Pehlvi alphabet and words - - - - - 124 

CHAP. XIV 

ON THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA — THE DEEI AND PARSI. 

i. The present alphabet of Persia not older than the seventh cen- 
tury — Appears to have succeeded the Cufic - 128 
n. The tomb of Cyrus - - - - - - 129 

in. The Pehlvi widely spoken in Persia at the present time - ib. 

iv. Etymology of Eelauts - - - - - - 130 

v. Etymology of Persians and Parthians - ib. 

vi. Probable origin of the modern Persic - - - - 131 

vn. Herodotus's account of the ancient Persians - - - 1 32 

vni. List of Persic words with their analogies - ib. 

CHAP. XV. 

GREECE. THE GREEK ALPHABET. THE GREEK VERB. 

i. Alpha - - - - - - 137 

ii. Beta -------- 140 

m. Gammma - - - - - - - 141 

iv. Delta- - - - - - - - 142 

v. El (Epsilon) - - - - - - ib. 

vi. Zeta - - - - - - - - 144 

vn. Eta - - - - - - - - 145 

vin. Theta - - - - - - - 147 

ix. Iota -* - - - - - - ib. 

x. Kappa - - - - - - - ib. 

xi. Lambda ----___ 14s 

xii. Mu - - - - - - - - ib. 

xiii. Nu - - - - - - - ib. 

xiv. Xi - - - - - - - - ib. 

xv. Ou (Omicron) - . - - - - - ib. 

xvi. Pi - - - - - - - - 151 



CONTENTS. XI 

Page 

xvii. Rho - - - - - - 151 

xviii. San (Sigma) - - - - - -152 

xix. Tau - - - - - - - ib. 

xx. Upsilon - - - - - - - ib. 

xxi. Phi - - - - - - ib. 

xxn. Chi - - - - - - - 153 

xxiii. Psi - - - - - - - ib. 

xxiv. Omega - - - - - - - ib. 

xxv. On the origin and formation of the Greek verb - - 154 

xxvi. The Greek language and alphabet derived from Asia - ib. 

xxvii. On the verb Tupto - - - - - 155 

xxviii. On the Present Tense as the root of the Greek verb - 156 

xxix. The most ancient form of the Greek verb - - 157 

xxx. Imperfect Tense — syllabic and temporal augment » 158 

xxxi. The First Future - - - - - -160 

xxxii. The First Aorist - - - - - - 162 

xxxiii. The Perfect - - - - - - 163 

xxxiv. The Pluperfect - - - - . - 164 

xxxv. The Second Future - - - - - 165 

xxxvi. The Second Aorist - - - - - 166 

xxxvu. The Paullo-Post-Futurum - - - - ib. 

xxxvm. The Aoristus iEolicus - - - - - 167 

xxxix. Of the Moods - - - - - - ib. 

xl. On the formatives or terminations of the Greek verb - 168 

xli. On the Auxiliary Verb To be- - - -171 

xlii. The obsolete "Ew, Sum - - - - - 177 

xliii. The obsolete "Eofiai, Sum - - - - 178 

xliv. The obsolete Tenses of Et/xr, Sum - - - 180 

xlv. The Imperative Mood and the Participles - - 181 

xlvi. The obsolete Egkw, Sum - - - - - 182 

xlvii. List of Latin verbs in £ sco - - - - 183 

xlviii. The obsolete Avw, Sum - - - - - 184 

xlix. The obsolete "Aw, Sum - - - - - ib. 

l. List of Greek verbs of the same signification of two, three, 

and four terminations, which are different forms of the 

Auxiliary Verb To be - - - - - ib. 

li. On the irregular Greek verb, as dependent on, and modified 

by the root or theme - - - - - 186 



CHAP. XVI. 

ETRURIA. FUNEREAL, OR BILINGUAL INSCRIPTIONS. 

I. How far was the Etruscan a distinct Language - - 195 

ii. Doubts as to the extreme antiquity of the remains of Art ib. 
in. Bad state of preservation of the Etruscan Monuments and 

Inscriptions - - - - - -196 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Page 

iv. Immense variety of Characters, or Letters contained in them - 197 

* iv. Sketch of the progress of our Knowledge respecting the 

Etruscan Language - - - - - 199 

v. Enumeration of the ancient Languages of Italy - - 200 

vi. The course pursued by Lanzi premature - ib. 

vn. List of Etruscan words from Bardetti - ib. 

viii. Explanation of the Funereal or Bilingual Inscriptions - - 201 

ix. The Eujmbine Tables - - - - - 207 



CHAP. XVII. 



ROME. OLDEST LATIN INSCRIPTIONS. 

i. Intimate Union between Eome and Alba ~ 209 

ii. An Alban and a Sabine word - - - - - ib. 

m. Language of the Romans - - - - -210 

iv. The Latin originated in iEolic Greek - - - - ib. 

v. We possess few Ancient Roman Inscriptions in their original 

state - - - - - - -211 

vi. Proved conclusively by a passage from Polybius - - ib. 

vn. Extract from the Laws of the Twelve Tables - 212 

vill Extract from the Laws of the Kings of Rome - ib. 

ix. Almost all the Roman Inscriptions that have come down to us 

had been renewed and modernised - - - - 213 



chap. xvni. 

ITALY. ANTIQUITY OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 

i. Latin not extinguished by the barbarous languages spoken in 

Italy - - - - - -214 

ii. But by a language older than itself perhaps - ib. 

in. Which was the Rustic Latin, and which finally subsided into the 

Modern Italian --_,_. 215 
iv. Was that Rustic Latin the Etruscan Language ? - - 216 

v. The word Tana, a cave, from the Etruscan Inscriptions, is 

Italian, and neither Greek nor Latin - - - 217 

vi. The Etruscans omitted final M - - - - - 218 

vn. Analogies between the Sanskrit and the Italian - - ib. 

vni. The word Hercules as it is invariably written in the Etruscan 
Inscriptions, is much more like the Modern Italian than 
either the Greek or Latin - - - - -219 

ix. Perhaps the Bilingual Inscriptions ought rather to be denomina- 
ted Biliteral — Ril not a genuine reading — Explanation of 
that word, and Leine - - - _ - 220 



CONTENTS. Xlll 



CHAP. XIX. 

ON THE MANTCHOUX, OR EASTERN TARTAR9. 

Page 

i. Reasons for not treating of the Celtae, Moeso- Goths, and Sarma- 

tians or Slavonians, in this Work - 224 

ii. Connexion between the Mantchoux and Chinese - - ib. 

in. Account of their origin - 225 

iv. Anxiety of the Reigning Dynasty to preserve the Mantchou 

Language - - - - - - - ib. 

v. Formation of a Thesaurus of the Tartaric Language — Mode 

of its arrangement ------ 226 

vi. Peculiarity in the use of the Verb ... - 227 

vii. Affluence of the Tartaric Language, in terms subservient to 

the purpose of Abridgment - 228 

vni. Reasons for believing in the human Origin of Language - ib. 

ix. List of Tartaric Words - - - - - 229 



CHAP. XX. 

ON THE MONGOLS, OR WESTERN TARTARS. TURKISH AND OUIGOUR 

LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

i. The Ouigour the oldest dialect of the Turco-Tartaric - - 232 

ii. The Ouigour and Osmanli compared - ib. 
in. The Tartaric Languages have strong claims to our notice - 234 

iv. Dialects of the Turco-Tartaric - ib. 

v. Abstract of Turkish Grammar - - - - ib. 

vi. Etymologies supplied by the Turkish - 235 

vii. Its' Analogies with other Languages - ib. 

CHAP. XXI. 

ARMENIAN LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

I. Early traditions respecting the inhabitants of Armenia - 237 

ii. The Armenian Language - - - - - ib. 

in The Armenian Alphabet analysed - 239 

iv. Abstract of Armenian Grammar - 240 

v. List of Armenian Words with their Analogies - - 241 



CHAP. XXII. 

AFRICA IN GENERAL. 

i. Geographical boundaries of Africa - 244 

ii. How peopled - - - - - - - ib. 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Pago 

in. Hercules — Cadmus — Sesostris — Tearchon — Navoeodrosorus 

— Idanthursus ----_- 945 

iv. African Words - - - - - 246 

v. African Languages ------ 247 

vi. List of Mandinso Words ----- 248 



CHAP. XXIII. 

AMERICA IN GENERAL. 

I. Prophecy of the discovery of America - 249 

n. The Atlantic Island - - - - - - ib. 

in. Geographical discovery of the Phoenicians - - - 250 

iv. Glimpses of some great Revolution in the State of the Earth - 251 
v. Force of subterranean fire ----- 252 

vi. Submersion and elevation of Continents _ _ - 253 

vn. The Ancients were aware of the possibility of reaching India by 

holding a Westerly course — Columbus - 254 

viii. Apparent coincidence between India and Peru - - 255 

ix. Coincidences between the Vocabularies of the Indian Tribes 

formed by Jefferson and the Lists of Asiatic words by Pallas ib. 
x. Affinities of the American Languages - - - - 256 

xi. The Mohegans have no Adjectives in their Language - - 257 

xii. Remains of Architecture and Sculpture in South America - 259 



CHAP. XXIV. 

ON HIEROGLYPHICS. 

i. Connexion between Hieroglyphics and the art of writing - 260 

n. Stimulus of posthumous fame - - - - - 261 

ni. Hieroglyphics comprised under three heads, or classes : - ib. 

1. Literal Hieroglyphics, or simple picture writing ~ - ib. 

2. Figurative Hieroglyphics - 262 

3. Phonetic Hieroglyphics ----- 263 
iv. Picture writing — Mexico - - - - - ib. 

v. Slow and gradual advance of Improvement - - - 265 

vi. Limited degree of information conveyed by the art of painting 266 
vn. The Sistine Chapel — TheCamere of the Vatican — TheCartoons 

— The Transfiguration - - - - - 267 

vm. Warburton's division of the Hieroglyphics of Fgypt - - 268 

ix. Exemplifications, and Illustrations - - - - 269 

x. Their extremely doubtful interpretation — Inscription on the 

temple of Minerva at Sais ----- 271 
xi. The authorities on which Warburton relied have been declin- 
ing: from his time to ours - - - - - ib. 



CONTENTS. XV 

Page 

xii. The Egyptian Hieroglyphics appear to have conveyed no infor- 
mation so early as the days of Herodotus - 272 

xin. Phonetic Hieroglyphics of the Chinese — Two or three Hiero- 
glyphic Characters appear to be common to the Chinese and 
Egyptians both in form and sound - 274 

xiv. Serapis — Cneph, or Cnuphis - ib. 

xv. Neith — Time — Nature ----- 275 

xvi. Thoth— Tot— Phre - - - - - - 276 

xvii. Arueris — Apopis — Etymology of Egypt - - - ib. 

xviii. Recapitulation — Progress and Prospects of our Hieroglyphical 

Knowledge ------ 277 



CHAP. XXV. 

ON ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

I. Hermes, or Thoth — Tot, the hand — The Cheirogasteres and 

Dactyli — Orpheus — Abaris - - - - 281 

ii. Hebrew and Greek terms for engrave and write - - 282 

in. Progress of the writing which was not alphabetical - - 283 

iv. Mexico — Picture writing has entirely disappeared in China — 
Trifling value of the knowledge transmitted by the Hiero- 
glyphics of Egypt- ----- 284 

v. Hieroglyphic writing has nothing in common with alphabetical 285 
vi. And does not necessarily lead to it - - - - 287 

vii. Extreme importance ascribed to Music by the Greeks, as one 

of the chief instruments in the civilisation of mankind - 290 

viii. Connexion between Music and Writing - - - 291 

ix. Reasons for believing that the earliest alphabetical characters 

were musical notes - - - - - ib. 

x. Speech natural music, and music artificial speech - - 292 



CHAP. XXVI. 

ON LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 

i. The history of Language may be divided into two parts - 294 

ii. Causes of the slow progress of the philosophy of Language - ib. 

in. The most has not been made of existing materials - - 296 

iv. In what manner is the use of Language actually acquired - 297 

v. Experiment related by Herodotus - - - - ib. 

vi. Statement of the subject by Rousseau - 299 
vn. Confounds the essential with the accidental — the natural with 

the artificial - - - - - - ib. 

1. Etymology - - - - - - 300 



XVI CONTENTS. 

Page 

2. Prosody - - - - - - ib. 

3. Inflexion - - - - - - ib. 

4. Syntax - - - - - - 301 

via. Object of Philosophical Grammar — Tenses - ib. 

ix. Moods - - - - - - - 302 

x. Voices - - - - - - *■ ib. 

xi. Numbers - - - - - - - - ib. 

xii. Cases - - - - - - - ib. 

xni. Genders ------. 303 

xiv. Parts of Speech - - - - - - ib. 

xv. Simple or abstract words - - - - _ _ 304 

xvi. Sanskrit Dhatos - - - - - - ib. 

xvit. Words of the Chinese spoken language - 305 

xvm. Analysis and Synthesis of Language - ib. 



CHAP. XXVII. 

ON NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. EXTENSION OF THE MEANING OF WORDS. 

i. The formation of Language supposes two conditions - - 307 

11. And communication by words has a double use - - 308 

in. It is no part of the philosophy of Language to inquire why 

particular ideas were distinguished by particular names - 309 
iv. The Scriptures contain no information as to the origin and 

formation of Language - - - - - ib. 

v. We can form as little idea of the language as of the happiness 

of Paradise _...._ 310 

vi. The oldest words in every language were the names of external 

objects - - - - - - -311 

vii. Parts of the human body — The relations of kindred - - 312 

vin. Singular uniformity in the operations of the mind where the 

words are very different ----- tf,. 

ix. The Head — Extension of its meaning — Metaphors borrowed 

from it - - - - - - - 313 

ib. 

- 314 
ib. 

- 315 
ib. 

- 316 
------ ib. 

ib. 

- 317 
ib. 

- 318 

- 319 

- ib. 



X. 


The Face - 


XI. 


The Ear 


XII. 


The Eye - 


xm. 


The Nose - 


XIV. 


The Mouth - 


XV. 


The Teeth - 


XVI. 


The Arm 


xvri. 


The Hand - 


XVTH. 


The Heart - 


XIX. 


The Foot - 


XX. 


The Nails - 


XXI. 


The Heel - 


XXII. 


Miscellaneous 



CONTENTS. XVII 

CHAP. XXVIII. 

ON NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 

Page 

i. Nature of a Noun Adjective ----- 321 

ii. Various definitions of it - - - - 322 

in. Mode of employing it - - - - - - 323 

iv. Not a distinct Part of Speech - 324 

v. Both Noun Substantives and Noun Adjectives in Greek and 
Latin appear to consist of an Immutable Root, joined to a 
Pronominal Termination — Durus, Latin — Eurus, Greek — 
Koilos, Greek — Coelus and Coelum, Latin — Ouranos, Greek 
— Urania, Latin - - - - - - ib. 

vi. The gratification the ear experienced from euphony, led to va- 
riety in the termination of words - - - _ 326 
vn. Which again permitted a greater liberty of choice in their collo- 
cation - - - - - - - ib. 

viii. Personification, or Prosopopeia - 327 

ix. Alliteration — The 119th Psalm — Virgil — Euripides — Mil- 
ton ------- 328 

x. Words with similar terminations in a line of Homer — Repeti- 
tion of the same words in a passage from Pope - - 329 

CHAP. XXIX. 

ON PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 

i. Arrangement of the matter of the Chapter - 330 

ii. Etymology of the English Pronoun She - ib. 

in. Etymology of Ego — Egoge — Sphoi - - - 331 

iv. Etymology of Emoi — Emeis — Ammes - _ - 332 

v. Pronouns and Articles of Greece and Rome traced to an Oriental 

root - 334 

vi. Analogies between the Pronouns of the Sanskrit and Arabic 

Families of Languages ----- 335 

vn. Regularity of the Personal Pronoun in Coptic - - 336 

viii. The first Person Singular - - - - - ib, 

ix. The first Person Plural, and the other Persons - - 337 

x. The Pronouns probably more altered than any other Class of 

Words - - - - - - - ib, 

CHAP. XXX. 

ON VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 

I. In the Shemitic Languages the Verbs possess a Gender, which 

is one of the strongest proofs of their Substantive Origin - 339 
11. The Hebrew verb Hajah ----- 340 



XVlll CONTENTS. 



in. The Arabic Verb Nasar - - - - - 340 

iv. The Verb may be analysed into a Noun, and its Terminations 

into Pronouns Personal - - - - - 341 

v. Uniform march, of the human mind in the formation and pro- 
gress of Language - - - - - - ib. 

vi. Terminations of Greek Verbs traced to an Asiatic Origin - 342 
vn. Attempt to trace the gradual Formation of the Hebrew Verb 343 
viii. The essential difference between Hebrew Xouns and Verbs 
consists in adding to the same Root a different set of Pro- 
nouns Personal as Terminations - 346 



CHAP. XXXI. 

ON PARTICLES. 

i. The indeclinable Parts of Speech, Prepositions, Conjunctions, 

Adverbs, and Interjections - 

ii. Egyptian Particles ------ 

in. Hebrew Particles ------ 

iv. Arabic Particles ------ 

v. Persic Particles ------ 

vi. Greek Particles ------ 

vn. Latin Particles ------ 



CHAP. XXXII. 

ON INFLEXION. GREEK AND LATIN NOUNS. THE LATIN VERB. 

I. Inflexion comprises both Declension and Conjugation — The 

essential respects in which they differ - 353 

ii. The Sanskrit has enabled us to trace many Greek and Latin 

Words to their source - - - - - ib. 

in. Oriental Roots with Greek and Latin Terminations - - 354 

iv. What those Terminations really are, and why they were added 355 
v. The basis of the regular Declensions of Greek Xouns - - ib. 

vi. The Irregular Declensions analysed - - - - 357 

vn. And accounted for by supposing that the different cases are 

formed from distinct Roots — Exemplifications - - 358 

vm. Corruptions, or Changes of the final letter of the Root - 360 

ix. Latin Xouns — Their Terminations formed by the Pronoun Isj 

Ea, Id - - - - - - - 361 

x. Derivation of the Verb Substantive To be - - - 362 

xi. The Latin Verb — Its Forniatives - ib. 

xii. On the obsolete Latin Verb Eo, To be — Its Analogies - 363 

xiit. Its Conjugation. — The Indicative Mood - 364 



CONTENTS. XIX 

Page 

xiv. Its Conjugation — The Potential Mood - 365 

xv. The Romans appear to have employed Sum chiefly as the 

Formative of the Passive, and Eo of the Active Voice - 366 

xvi. Eram and Ibam were probably identical originally - - 367 

xvn. Fui, Ivi, and li, the Formatives of the Perfect - - ib. 



CHAP. XXXIII. 

ON THE VOWELS OF THE SHEMITIC LANGUAGES, AS ILLUSTRATING THOSE 
OF THE GREEK AND LATIN, AND THE ORIGIN OF THE GREEK ASPIRATES 
OR BREATHINGS. 

i. The Shemitic Vowels in connexion with the Greek Breathings 370 

ii. Extraordinary mistake of Mr. Payne Knight - - - ib. 

in. The Samaritan or Phoenician Aleph, and He - - - 371 

iv. The Samaritan Heth - - - - - - ib. 

v. The common Syriac Vau - - - - - 372 

vi. The Estrangolo, or Old Syriac Vau - ib. 

vn. The Hebrew Yood ------ 373 

viii. Greek Eta primarily an Aspirate with the power of H, and 

finally a contraction for writing two Epsilons - - ib. 

ix. The Breathings originated in the disappearance of Eta as an 

Aspirate Letter - -. - - - 374 

x. As applied at present worse than useless - 375 

xi. The imperfect mode of writing the Shemitic Languages has pro- 
bably retarded the civilisation of the race - - - 376 



CHAP. XXXIV. 

ON PROSODY. THE GREEK DRAMA. 

i. Interminable disputes respecting Quantity and Accent - 378 

n. We are constrained to come to the conclusion that the Greek 

and Latin Languages were essentially different from all others 379 
in. Persic Prosody - - - - - - ib. 

iv. Sanskrit Prosody - - - - - -380 

v. Egyptian Prosody - - - - - - ib. 

vi. Passage from Cicero, which proves that the great Mass of the 

Romans had no knowledge of long and short syllables - 381 

vn. From which the necessary inference is, that their Speech was 

regulated by Accent, like that of all the rest of Mankind - ib. 
in. Origin of the Greek Drama ----- 382 

ix. That origin was perfectly decisive of its nature - - ib . 

x. And Greek and Roman Tragedy was essentially a musical enter- 
tainment, analogous to the Italian Opera - - - 333 
a 2 



XX CONTEXTS. 

Page 

xi. The Roman audience exclaimed because the actor sung or re- 
cited out of tune - - - - - - 384 

xn. The Greek Epic and Lyric poets sung to a musical accompa- 
niment, and their syllables were long or short, because 
they were associated with long or short musical notes - ib. 
xni. The different poetical measures are musical tunes - - 885 

xiv. Intimate union between Greek poetry and music - - 386 

xv. Greek Prosody was formed by and proceeded pari passu 

with Greek music - - - - - 387 

xvi. Of the two essential parts of music, tune and time, the 
poetical measures and feet represent the latter, the former 
not having come down to us - - - - 388 

xvii. In the struggle between poetry and music the former has 

invariably been sacrificed ----- 389 

xvni. Actual condition and future prospects of English Opera - ib. 
xix. Nature appears to have done much less for the ears of the 

moderns than of the ancients - 392 

xx. TVe ought to revert to the primitive mode of writing Greek, 
which left no more doubt respecting the quantity of the 
syllables than of the letters of which they were composed - 393 
xxi. Analogy of the Persic and Sanskrit — The ancient Greeks 

denoted a long syllable by writing the vowel twice - 394 

xxn. Anomalies of Prosody - - - - - 395 

xxm. Abstract of the rules of Prosody from Thiersch - - 396 

xxiv. Observations from Yalpy ----- 397 

xxv. Extract from Matthias - - - - - 398 

xxvi. Matthias supposes that Homer and the early Greek poets had 
the power of making all the vowels either long or short, as 
suited the measure of their verse - - - - 400 

xxvn. Tendency of sonorous words to conceal ignorance - - 401 

xxvni. Thiersch's remarks on Accent — Conclusion and proposed 

remedy ------- 402 



CHAP. XXXV. 

ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. — THE IEOJLIC DIGAMMA. 

I. Perplexity and uncertainty of the subject — Might be de- 
nominated the Pelasgic Digamma - 404 
ii. Is susceptible of illustration in no other mode than by re- 
curring to the languages of Asia - ib. 
in. There is a general tendency in Language to drop aspirates - 405 
iv. Passage from Dionysius of Halicarnassus the foundation of 

almost all the speculations on the Digamma - - 406 

v. Reasons for believing that the passage is either interpolated 

or corrupted --__-- 407 

vi. Account of the Digamma by Yarro, Didymus, and Priscian ib. 
vn. Inquiry into the origin of the Roman F - - 408 



CONTENTS. XXI 

Page 
viii. Was certainly derived from Ouau, Vau, or Wav, the sixth 

letter of the Sheinitic alphabets - 408 

ix. The Ethiopic letters Af and Wawe - 409 

x. The letters B and V 410 

xi. Ambiguous character of the sixth letter of the Shemitic al- 
phabets - - - - - - - ib. 

xn. Origin of the Greek Omicron and Upsilon - ib. 

xiii. Words in which O in Greek becomes V in Latin - - 411 

xiv. Latin words commencing with V accounted for without 

the Digamma - - - - - -412 

xv. Various forms of Digamma - - - - 413 

xvi. Hebrew Hay (H) and Roman F (Digamma) - - ib. 

xvii. Hebrew Bayth (B, or V,) Hay and Heth - - - 414 

xviii. Sanskrit Hv, Sanskrit Ha (H) and Digamma (F) - - ib. 

xix. Inquiry whether H or F was the older aspirate — Herodotus 

— Etymology of Vesta - - . - - - 415 

xx. Ovid — Falisca from Halesus - 416 

xxi. Aristotle — Italus king of the CEnotrians - 417 

xxn. Pliny — Servius — Priscian - ib. 

xxiii. Attempt to reconcile the different accounts - - - 418 

xxiv. Elean inscription, H, and F - - - - 419 

xxv. How far the Digamma is of any practical importance - 420 

xxvi. Opinion of Marsh in his Horse Pelasgicss - ib. 

xxvn. Opinion of Dunbar in his Dissertation on the versification of 

Homer - - - - - - - ib. 

xxvin. On the use of the Digamma by Homer - - - 421 

xxix. The aspirate character in the oldest Greek inscriptions - 422 

xxx. The Digamma does little for the versification of Homer - 424 

xxxi. Era of Homer, or rather of his works - ib. 

xxxn. Probability that in the early ages of Greece the Licentia 

Poetica extended to the lengthening of all vowels - 425 

xxxni. Desirableness of some improved mode of printing Greek and 
Latin books which might render the quantity of the syllables 
obvious at a glance - - - - - 426 

1. The Sanskrit has a double set of Vowels, long and 
short - - - - - - ib. 

2. The Greek approximates to the Sanskrit in having two 

of its five vowels both long and short - - 427 

3. The Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans wrote a short 
vowel twice to denote a long syllable - - ib. 

4. Probability that the ancient Greeks had some character 
equivalent to the Hebrew Dagesh to denote that a 
letter was doubled, and that therefore the anomalies in 
the inscriptions are only apparent - - - 428 

5. Supposing Prosody to be the most valuable part of 
classical learning, we ought to adopt an improved 
method of writing ----- 429 

6. The acquirement of some of the Oriental languages 
might be advantageously substituted for verse making 430 

a 3 



ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. 

Page 53. line 2. from bottom, before " invention" insert "the." 

54. line 8. for " book ii." read " book xi." 

55. line 9. for " lib. i." read "lib. ii." 

92. line 13. after " accusative" add " distinguished by distinct terminations, 
the dative and ablative being included in the genitive." 
129. note, for " Wilkinson" read " liawlinson." 
249. line 12. from bottom, for " Proculus" read " Proclus." 
342. last line, after " Egyptian," for " J" read " I." 
418. line 11. fiora bottom, for "inscriptions" read " inscription." 



INTRODUCTION. 



1. In the present advanced state of philological knowledge, 
any man about to make an addition to the mass which is 
already so vast, may very reasonably be asked what end he 
proposes to himself, and by what means he intends to effect 
it ; and, unless he can return a satisfactory answer to both 
questions, he can hardly expect that his work will be at- 
tended to, when he observes the various new productions 
which the press pours forth every day with such increasing 
profusion, most of which, while they make fewer demands 
on the time and attention of the reader, are likely to afford 
him more entertainment and gratification than a work that is 
merely philological. 

2. The present work was undertaken under a conviction 
that most of the philological treatises which have been given 
to the world, up to this time, have failed, because they have 
been founded on too narrow a foundation of fact ; because 
their authors have written as if there were no other lan£uao;es 
in existence than the Greek and Latin, or at any rate as if 
they were the only ones deserving the notice of scholars, and 
have drawn all their examples and illustrations from them ac- 
cordingly. Believing that the Baconian method of reasoning 
is as applicable to philology as to physics ; that the obscurities 
with which the subject of language is in a peculiar manner 
beset, could be dispelled in no other way than by concen- 
trating all the rays of light that can be collected from every 
attainable source however remote; and that no mode of safety 
was to be found except by consulting a multitude of coun- 
sellors ; I have anxiously looked about in every direction in 

a 4 



XXIV INTRODUCTION. 

which such guides might be expected to present themselves, 
and my attention has been attracted more especially to the 
East. 

3. A little reflection on the subject convinced me beyond 
the power of doubt, that all the assistance has not been 
derived from the languages of Asia, in elucidating those of 
Europe, which they are capable of affording; and further 
consideration suggested the possibility that I might effect 
something myself, that I might at least point out the true 
road, though I could not expect to make any considerable 
advances in it, and collect materials for a foundation to be 
laid at a future period by stronger and abler hands. I was 
well aware that many of the great philologists of the last 
and the preceding century, as well as those nearer our own 
times, Scaliger, Vossius, Schultens, Valckenaer, Ruhnken, 
Lennep, and Hemsterhuys, were familiarly acquainted with 
most of the Shemitic languages ; but I was also aware that 
the labours of Halhed, Jones, Colebrooke, and Wilkins, by 
laying open the stores of knowledge contained in the Sans- 
krit, constituted a new era in philology, and that a boundless 
extent of country was unfolded not to be commanded by the 
highest point of that Pisgah occupied by the distinguished 
scholars comprised in the first list. 

4. Of these Lennep produced a work expressly devoted to 
the etymology of the Greek language, and Hemsterhuys 
attempted to prove that all the words in that language might 
be derived from a very limited number of primitive roots*: 

* This was a favourite theory seventy or eighty years since, when Adam 
Smith published his " Considerations concerning the first Formation of 
Languages," and perhaps one more utterly unfounded was never con- 
ceived. In that work the following passage occurs : " The Greek seems 
to be, in a great measure, a simple uncompounded language, formed 
from the primitive jargon of those wandering savages, the ancient Hel- 
lenians and Pelasgians, from whom the Greek nation is said to have been 
descended. All the words in the Greek language are derived from about 
three hundred primitives ; a plain evidence that the Greeks formed their 
language almost entirely among themselves, and that when they had oc- 
casion for a new word, they were not accustomed, as we are, to borrow it 
from some foreign language, but to form it either by composition or de- 
rivation from some other word or words in their own." 



INTRODUCTION. XXV 

and yet I think it is a point susceptible of demonstration, that 
a large proportion of the words in the Greek language are 
not primitive to that language, but derivative ; and that of 
those which up to this time have been in an especial manner 
selected as its radicals, few will be found deserving of that 
character, as they are neither roots, nor do they exist in a 
simple state, but are on the contrary clearly compounds, 
the component parts of which may be pointed out and traced 
to their true origin. I know no better mode of imparting 
my ideas to my reader, and inducing him to partake of my 
conviction, than by stating the way in which that conviction 
was attained, which I will do as briefly as is consistent with 
clearness. 

5. I shall commence by giving a few words from such of 
the Shemitic languages as I am acquainted with, which have 
passed into the Greek and Latin ; and an attentive reader 
cannot fail to perceive, not only that the terminations of the 
Asiatic words are varied in the derivative languages, but that 
they are all varied in precisely the same way. 

Hebrew and Chaldee Roots. Greek and Latin Derivatives. 

Baal, lord, in the Septuagint Bel j ^ 1] 

Japhet, the son of Noah \ Jaoet-us' 

Caiph, a rock Keph-as, Peter (New Testament). 

Moom, a stain, blemish | M °J£~°g" 

Lo-Moom, spotless A-Mum-On (Greek), blameless. 

■c, , ,, . f Ereb-os. 

Ereb, the evening | Ereb-us, son of Chaos and Darkness. 

I lPiflO'-flS I 

Peleg, a brook (that which divides) 1 p e i a °. u « f tne sea - 

Sak, sackcloth { g^;™' 

Mot, a moving or shaking Mot-us, Latin. 

rr, -, n f Taur-os. 

Tor ' abu11 tTaur-us. 

Arabic and Tersic Roots. Greek and Latin Derivatives. 

Bal, the heart, mind, soul Boul-e, council, Greek. 

Jaw an (Persic), a young man Juven-is, Latin. 

Chugh (Persic), a yoke Jug-um, Latin. 

Diw, or Div (Persic), a demon Div-us (Latin), a god. 

Sunnat (Arabic), institution, law ... Senat-us (Latin), a senate. 



XXVI INTRODUCTION. 

Arabic and Persic Roots. Greek and Latin Derivatives. 

Sinali (Persic), the bosom Sin-us, Latin. 

Kalam (Arabic), a pen or reed \ ,-, \ 

Kirbas (Arabic), fine linen Carbas-us, Latin. 

Kiras (Arabic), a cherry Ceras-us, Latin. 

Lawt (Arabic), bedaubing with mud Lut-um (Latin), mud, clay. 

Mubhil (Arabic), setting at liberty.. Mobil-is, Latin. 

Marmar (Pers. and Arab.), marble.. Marmar-os, Greek. 

Mahal (Arab.), formidable, dreadful Mal-us (Latin), bad. 

Nail, or Nav (Persic), a boat ( S au '. S ' 5 r< ;? k - 

' v >" ^ JNav-is, Latin. 

Nabil (Arabic), great, noble Nobil-is, Latin. 

Sif (Arabic), a sword Xiph-os, Greek. 

f Amar (Doric), a day. 
Amar (Arabic), time (in general) ... -I Emer-e, Ionic. 

[ Emer-a, common Greek. 

6. The first impression on my mind is one of surprise, that 
the Greek and Latin appear to have borrowed so few words 
from the Shemitie languages, widely as these languages are 
dhTused over western Asia ; for though many words might be 
added to the preceding lists, and I should experience no 
difficulty in doing so myself, still the coincidences are so few 
as may serve to convince us that we have not discovered the 
birthplace and the parents of the Greek and Latin. The 
next observation which can hardly fail to strike every one is, 
that the words adopted by those European languages from 
the Asiatic, are rarely found in their primitive state, the 
Greek being changed by the added terminations Os, As, E, 
and On ; and the Latin by the terminations Us, Is, A, and 
Urn. These additions appear to indicate a radical difference 
in the genius and character of the languages, which it is 
much easier to notice than to account for. The first and 
most obvious conjecture is, that these terminations of Greek 
and Latin words were added to the Asiatic roots as marks 
of gender ; and if they had all been derived from the Persic, 
this idea would have carried much probability with it, as 
that language, like the English, Turkish, and Armenian, 
acknowledges no distinction of gender in words, but such as 
are founded on difference of sex : but in all the Shemitie 
languages, the Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, 



INTRODUCTION. XXVll 

and Ethiopic, every Noun Substantive possesses a distinct 
gender, as well as in Greek and Latin. The preceding lists 
of Shemitic words, therefore, present too narrow and unsafe 
a foundation to raise any considerable superstructure on, and 
by directing our attention to another quarter, we must draw 
a wider induction from a more varied and ample collection 
of facts. 

7. From the Shemitic languages let us turn to the 
Sanskrit, the generally acknowledged mother of most of the 
dialects in the vast continent of India, and the oldest of the 
large family of languages denominated Indo-European, of the 
existence of which, seventy years ago, hardly any inhabitant 
of Europe was aware ; and first of its Noun Substantives, the 
following list of which presents some of the closest analogies 
with the Greek and Latin. I shall give the words in 
Sanskrit characters, and also in English, so far as it is 
possible to render them. 

<ir\ ^*i Atnu, the sun Airvat-og, son of Prometheus. 

-rrf-s-'F^r Aditi, the mother of "I . * e n , , 

3j \GJ rl the ' gods j AycWr-ic, a name of Cybele. 

^TT x Ara, the planet Mars ... Ap-rjg, Mars. 

^ ^ Udu, water Yd-og, water. 

v*>^{ Ulva, the womb Alv-us. 

3f"|cfj Oka, a house Oiic-og. 

cjlMTiiT Karpasa, cotton Carbas-us. 

C^^S^-J Kalama, a pen, or reed KaAa/j-jj. 

"{"cteJ Kriya, the sign Aries ... Kpi-og. 

$T ^cuit 81 " 7, ether ' Va "} Xa -° g - 

^clyOy Grini, the sun Tpvvei-cg, an epithet of Apollo. 

\ ^ej^jOT TrikoUa, a triangle Tpiyiav-og. 

<^c| Diva, a deity, a god .... Div-us. 



XXV111 INTRODUCTION. 



Dru, a tree Apv-c 



"^^ !Nava, new Nov-us. 

•"Jtl Nasa, the nose Nas-us. 

■"tl^ Nida, a nest Nid-us. 



?f Nu, a boat Nau-c. 



«T3T ISToma, a portion No/-<-?;. 

e^"7 !N~au, a boat Kavis. 

L| jctj t Pithali, the sun Tlv6t«oc, an epithet of Apollo. 

L^«"j ♦ Phinah, froth, foam Venus,bornfromthefoamofthesea. 

T"TfT| Kajni, a queen Regin-a. 

frj^Gl Loka, a letter, an epistle Aoy-oc, a word. 

^"TrT Vata, air, wind Vat-es, a prophet, a poet. 

■5*cT5r Suasru, a mother-in-law Socr-us. 

A 

lid F^-i Sanhati, an assemblage Senat-us 

^w&]t\ s uge og !:. a !. a !. e . m :} »«w* 

(fX^f Swasri, a sister Sosor, Old Latin. 

H"^T Haya, a horse Equ-us. 

fn^JH t Hayanah, a year Ann-us. 

^■■F^T Hili, the sun H\t-oc. 

8. Here we may remark that although the Sanskrit is the 
undoubted mother of the Greek and Latin, and although 
more roots of Nouns and Verbs are to be traced to that 
language than perhaps to all the other languages of Asia 
put together, when adopted from the original into the two 
derivative languages they have been subject to precisely the 
same treatment as the roots borrowed from the Shemitic 
languages. We are now quite certain, that some cause for 



INTRODUCTION. XXIX 

these changes, so systematically produced, must exist deep in 
the very genius and nature of the Greek and Latin lan- 
guages, which, if we can discover, it cannot fail to throw 
much light, not merely on the two languages in question, but 
on the structure and formation of language in general. The 
labourers in the vast field of language may be divided into 
two great classes, the practical and popular, and the specu- 
lative and philosophical. The object of the former is simply 
to give an accurate account of the actual state of every lan- 
guage, with a view of facilitating its acquisition, and render- 
ing it perfectly intelligible when acquired. The Lexicographer 
collects all the words of which it is composed, arranges them 
according to their initial letters, or their roots, explains their 
various meanings, and illustrates the application of each by 
apposite passages, collected from the works of authors of the 
highest authority in the languages of which he treats ; while 
the Grammarian arranges these words into classes, describes 
the mode in which the mea'ning of Nouns Substantive and 
Nouns Adjective is modified by declension, and of Verbs and 
Participles by conjugation, together with the laws agreeably 
to which all these words are arranged in a sentence, which is 
Syntax, or in metrical composition, which is Prosody. The 
exertions of the Grammarian are, for the most part, limited 
to an account of that which actually is, and the mode in 
which it exists ; while the philosophical Philologist endeavours 
to ascend to the fountain head of the different languages he 
investigates, to trace their gradual changes, to reproduce 
that which has become obsolete, to ascertain not merely the 
meanings of words but the successive steps of their formation, 
and the cause of their various shades of signification ; to note 
the peculiarities of each language, and observe how, in one, 
high excellencies are counterbalanced by corresponding de- 
fects, while in others, apparent deficiencies are atoned for by 
unexpected compensations ; with a view of deducing from the 
whole general conclusions as to the nature and structure of 
language itself. It is no doubt true that these various la- 
bours have been in a considerable degree united in such 
works as the Latin grammars of Zumpt and Scheller, and 



XXX INTRODUCTION. 

the Greek of Thiersch and Matthias ; and it is quite certain 
that any great improvement in the metaphysics, or philoso- 
phy of language, will react on its practice and acquirement ; 
and that, thanks to the invention of printing, any advance of 
esoterical knowledge in the innermost shrine of the temple will 
be soon felt by the crowd of exoterics who are thronging the 
vestibule, or painfully and slowly ascending the long flight of 
steps of the portico. 

9. A publication which has done essential service to the 
cause of knowledge, remarks, in connexion with my subject, 
a Sanskrit Noun, in its first formation from the general root, 
exists equally independent of case, as of gender. It is 
neither Nominative, nor Genitive, nor Accusative, nor is im- 
pressed with any of those modifications which mark the 
relation and connexion between the several members of a 
sentence. In this state it is called an imperfect, 
or crude, Noun. To make a Nominative of any Noun, 
the termination must be changed, and a new form supplied. 
Thus we see that, in the Sanskrit at least, the Nominative 
has an equal right with any other inflexion to be called a 
case. (Rees's Cyclopaedia, in voce Shanskrit.) As Raphael, 
the greatest of artists, in his ardent pursuit of excellence, and 
exquisite sensibility to every species of beauty, with a clear 
perception of the invariable dependence of beauty on truth 
and nature, sometimes took the pains to draw the naked 
figure and invest it with drapery ; and sometimes even pre- 
viously to draw the skeleton and clothe it with flesh, that he 
might be quite certain as to the outline and proportions of 
his figure : in the same way the philologist may be sure, that, 
if he has been successful in discovering the genuine roots of 
speech, or words in an uncompounded state, reasons of a 
very especial nature must exist for the additions made to that 
root, which are discoverable by the exercise of patient at- 
tention and careful reflection. The Sanskrit Noun in a 
crude state, or destitute of gender, case, and number, may be 
compared to the skeleton ; when prepared for declension, to 
the skeleton invested with flesh ; and this is the state in 
which we find Nouns existing in the Shemitic languages, 



INTRODUCTION. XXXI 

and in Persic, of which a short list has been given in the 
preceding pages ; and, as to almost all of these the Greeks 
and Romans still made an addition, they may be said to have 
attached drapery to the naked figure, which latter the 
English and most of the languages of modern Europe have 
dropped again, and we find words existing in precisely the 
same state as they had been in the respective Shemitic Ian 
guages from which they were borrowed. 

10. If we turn from Sanskrit to the Greek and Latin 
grammars, with the advantage of knowing what is essential 
and wdiat extraneous, what is radical and what adscititious, 
the words will soon assume a totally new character, and di- 
vide themselves into two parts, a root which never varies, 
and exhibits the meaning of the term in a general way, and 
a set of terminations equally applicable to all roots, and by 
the changes of which all the modifications of that meaning 
are effected. Eor instance the Sanskrit word for a house is 
Oka, or rather Ok, a biliteral word, since the A is not writ- 
ten but understood. If we insert the vowel I between these 
two letters, write Oik, and add the termination Os, we shall 
have the Greek word Oikos (Olkos), house, a Noun of the 
masculine gender and third declension. If again we take 
the Sanskrit word Lok, a letter or epistle, substitute for the 
final Kappa, a letter of the same organ, Gamma, and add the 
termination Os, we shall have the Greek word Logos (Aoy- 
os), word, also a Noun masculine of the same declension, 
wdiich is given in the Eton Grammar; and if we follow it 
through all its cases, we shall observe not only that the 
Sanskrit root never varies, but that all the terminations in 
the Singular, Dual, and Plural Numbers are formed by what 
grammarians denominate the Personal Pronoun 69. If we 
take the Sanskrit word Samayog, an assemblage, write it in 
Greek characters and add a final Eta, w T e shall have ^vva- 
yftry-77, a synagogue, a Noun feminine of the second de- 
clension ; and if w r e follow it through all its cases, we shall 
observe in the same way that the Sanskrit root never 
changes, and that all the terminations in the Singular, Dual, 
and Plural Numbers are formed by the Article 77. The 



XXXll INTRODUCTION. 

same may be remarked of the Sanskrit word Kalani, a pen 
or reed, in Greek Ka\a/x-7]. And if again we take a Greek 
Noun Substantive, of the neuter gender and third declension, 
avXov, wood, for instance, we may notice that the first 
syllable Xul never changes, and that the second in every 
case is formed by ov, the neuter of 09, letter for letter, 
without the smallest change. If we now take the word 
Ashtoreth, which occurs so frequently in the Old Testament, 
and write it in Hebrew characters with the Greek letters 
under it, we shall perceive that the Greeks have added a 
final Eta, and, by disjoining the root from the termination, 
obtain a perfectly clear idea of the modus significandi. 

H-TqATZA 

Literally. By Prescription. 

Affrapr-T) Astarte she Astarte (an agent). 

AffrapT-ijg Astarte of her Of Astarte. 

Aarapr-r] Astarte to her To Astarte. 

AarapT-riv Astarte her Astarte (a subject). 

And as many of the Greek declensions are effected by the 
aid of the Personal Pronoun Os, there can be as little doubt 
that many of the Latin are formed by the Pronoun Is joined 
to an immutable root. 

Kajni, a Queen, Sanskrit. 

Regin-a, Latin, by transposition, and a final A. 

Regin-a, a Queen Regin*33, Queens. 

Regin-aa Regin-arum, of Queens. 

Regin-ae Regin-is, to Queens. 

Regin-ani Regin-as, Queens. 

Regin-a Regin-se, O Queens. 

Regin-a Regin-is, by Queens. 

In Musa, a song, not a letter of Ea, the feminine of Is, is 
changed, except in the Genitive and Dative Cases Singular. 
The Plurals of Magistri and Domini are formed from Ii, 
letter by letter. In the third, fourth, and fifth declensions, 
the resemblance is less close, and we must suppose that the 



INTRODUCTION. XXX111 

terminations of the different cases were formed from a Pro- 
noun that has become obsolete. * 

11. "The Sanskrit, the Arabic, the Greek, and the Latin 
verbs f says Rees's Cyclopaedia, under the article Shanskrit) are 
furnished with a set of inflexions and terminations so compre- 
hensive and so complete, that by their form alone they can 
express all the different distinctions both of person and time. 
Three different qualities are in them perfectly blended and 
united : thus by their root they denote a particular 
act ; and by their inflexion both point out the time when it 
takes place, and the number of agents." But that we may be 
quite sure that we are not imitating the example of the Hindu 
cosmogonists, who support the earth on the back of a huge 
elephant, and the elephant on the shell of a tortoise, while the 
tortoise itself rests on nothing, too apt a picture, alas ! of no 
inconsiderable portion of the fabric of human knowledge, or 
at any rate of what is called by that name, let us bring to- 
gether such Dhatos, or verbal roots, from the Sanskrit as have 
obviously and undeniably given birth to corresponding deri- 
vatives in Greek and Latin, as they tend to prove not merely 
the similarity, but in many respects identity of the three 
languages, while, if I am not very greatly mistaken, the dif- 
ferences that will be found to exist, will supply a much more 
valuable lesson in inflexion than the resemblances in etymo- 
logy- 

Sanskrit Boots. Greek and Latin Derivatives. 

3PT Ag, move ( A 7 -o, Proficiscor. 

' ' & [ Ago, I move. 

3f^ Ad, eat Edo, I eat. 

3j"^f Ay, move, go Eo, I go. 

3J"fT Arha, be able ApK-eoj, Sufficio. 

3TTTJ Ap, possess Habeo, I have. 

«T Go I, go thou, Imp, of Eo. 

V \j' It, go, move Ito, I go often. 

* For further elucidations of this subject, see Chapter XXXIL, On 
Inflexion. 

b 



XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 

Sanskrit Roots. Greek and Latin Derivatives. 

\\ Id, see Eid-tit, Video. 

5^ Ir, move Ire, the Infin. of Eo. 

^ ^ Ir, irritate Ira, anger. 

vj"^" Uk, move &K-uc,Velox. 

^<T" Und, make wet Undo, I overflow. 

55537 Rich-ha, grow hard, congeal Ptyo-w, Rigeo. 

JJT5T Gal, ooze, run out TaX-o, Lac. 

{H u Tap, warm, heat Tepeo, I am warm. 

pi M' Tup, kill ; Tupati, he kills Tv7rr-w, Tvtttsi. 

'*-\\Y Tup, injure, kill Twvr-w. 

^J npr Tuph, injure, kill te-rv$a. 

, , , m • i ,•/> f Tfo7r-a», Delecto (by transpo- 

^■q- Trip, please, gratify | C^ ^ > 

f-fG7 Triph, be satisfied Ts-repfa. 

f^\^\ Til, make smooth TtXX-w, Vellico. 



Da, give Do, I give. 

Dan, give Dono, I give. 

Das, give Awit-w, Dabo, Fut. 1. of Didomai. 

Dad, give Aidco-fxt, Do. 

Dam, be tame Aapa-o, Domo. 



3J 

7-JT Dram, go { ^f"' Cu T rr ° <> bso f lete )- 

S*ol ' => (_ E-dpafi-ov, Imperfect. 

^?SJ Dans, bite Dens, a tooth. 

jjrt Pi, drink IIi-w, Bibo, inusit. pro irivu. 

■ ■ ,^> Pani, drink IIiv-w, Bibo. 

q^ p - d • {Zl-^ ed °- 



INTRODUCTION. XXXV 

Sanskrit Roots. Greek and Latin Derivatives. 

f IT\f-w, navigo. 

TIp5J" Plav, float J IlXfF-w, „ with medial Di- 

^ y gamma. 

^ Blm, exist, be, become ( *"-"> Sum ^ ,„ . , ... 

<\ |_ Fy-o, pro Sum (Facciolati). 

*-j«"| Man, know, understand.... Mj/vu-w, Declaro. 

CJTT Mna, study, practice, learn f Mva-w, in memoriam revoco. 
' ' by heart \ Mva-ofiai, „ 

±\*~\ Man, fix, stop Mtv-w, Maneo. 

^5f Ra y>go • P«-w, Fluo. 

J cj Rav, go PfF-w, „ with medial Digamma. 

^Gj Riv, flow PlF-to, „ „ 

"T"g" Rah, go, move P*h-w, „ with medial H. 

^rj" Li, embrace Ad), Yolo (Doric). 

fg Tlch Lok, speak, or tell A*y-w, Dico. 

rTXy^X Lambhi, cause to obtain.... Aofx^-avuj, Capio. 

12. The reader now has all the facts fairly before him, 
and nothing remains to be done but to deduce a logical con- 
clusion from them. There is no doubt about the form or 
meaning of the Dhatos, or simple roots, in Sanskrit, and 
as little as to the addition made to them in Greek and 
Latin, and the new signification produced by that addition. 
In the chapter on the Sanskrit it will be shown that the con- 
jugations of the Verb are effected by the aid of the Auxiliary 
Verb, to be, as in English, and that the Present Tense in par- 
ticular consists in almost every instance of an unvarying root, 
joined to the persons of the Verb Asa, in the Infinitive Mood 
Astun, to be, without any change whatever, except dropping 
the letter S. Applying this principle to the Greek language, 
and enlarging the mode of its application, which we are en- 
abled to do from the circumstance of our finding the Verb 
Substantive existing in a more perfect state, and from that 

b 2 



XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 

part of it which has become obsolete being recoverable, we can 
account for, perhaps it is hardly using too strong language to 
say we can demonstrate, the mode of the formation of the 
Present, the Imperfect, and the Future Tenses throughout 
all the Voices and Moods in the Greek Language. 

Active Voice, Indicative Mood, Present Tense. 

The termination in w, is a contraction of the obsolete Ew, Sum. 
„ „ in avio „ „ „ Avw, Sum. 

Root, Ana, Sanskrit, breath, exist. 
„ „ in jitf, is a contraction of Eip, Sum. 

Passive and Middle Voices, Indicative Mood, Present Tense. 
The terminations are contractions of the obsolete * Eojugu, Sum. 

13. Such are a few of the advantages arising out of the 
circumstance of our finding the roots of the Greek and Latin 
Nouns and Verbs existing in a more simple and undisguised 
state in the languages of Asia, and more especially the Sans- 
krit, than they are to be found in those of Europe. It may 
be regarded as a proof that the Baconian method of reasoning 
is susceptible of being applied with as much success to 
Philology as to Physics, that, if we attempt to build on any- 
other foundation than that of fact, we must expect that the 
edifice raised will possess neither firmness nor durability, 
and, that if any consistent theory of the philosophy of language 
is ever to be formed, it can only be the result of a comprehen- 
sive survey of languages. In connexion with this view of the 
subject, a volume, and by no means an uninteresting or un- 
important one, might be written ; and, though this is no place 
for discussing such a topic at great length, I may perhaps be 
allowed to add a few words. Every year that passes over our 
heads tends to add force to the conviction, that the only solid 
and secure basis of human knowledge, in all its departments, 
must be laid in well- observed and accurately-defined facts. 
If we cast a retrospective glance over the vast field of science, 
we shall discover that those branches of it which possess most 
certainty, and have assumed the most strictly regular form, 
are those of which the body of facts of which they are com- 

* For further elucidations, see Chap. XV. Part II., on the Greek verb. 



INTRODUCTION. XXX Vll 

posed, fall most completely under the survey and scrutiny of 
our senses. The value of the stock of physical knowledge 
transmitted to us by the Greeks and Romans bears no sort 
of proportion to that of the moral, mental, poetical, and criti- 
cal, from the simple circumstance that their mode of philoso- 
phising in the former was vicious ah initio, as they were of 
opinion that they could dispense with the observation and 
collection of facts, and instead of reasoning from particulars 
to generals, from individuals to universals, they fancied that 
they could infer from the latter to the former. For this cause, 
while of their physical systems and theories little remains, they 
reasoned so well and so conclusively on many branches of 
mental and moral philosophy, of eloquence and criticism, that 
to this day little has been removed as unsound, and as little 
added as original. The average powers of the human mind, 
have certainly been pretty much the same in every age of the 
world, and perhaps also its activity ; and the result of its ef- 
forts, in almost every instance, appears to have depended on 
the mode in which they were made, and the direction in 
which they were exerted. The Greeks of the age of Pericles, 
and under the dynasty of the Ptolemies, were essentially the 
same people, but the value of their literary exertions was 
so different, that while few productions of the former period 
which time has spared have been allowed to be forgotten, as 
few of the latter, subsequent to the reign of Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, continue to be remembered and read. The mental 
activity of the schoolmen of Europe, during the middle ages, 
was at least equal to that of the Romans in the Augustan age, 
and yet we no more resort to their writings, in the hope of 
being made either wiser or better, than we expect to gather 
grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. The subjects of 
their disputations were all beyond this visible diurnal sphere, 
and had a very remote concern with the world and its con- 
cerns. They fell not under the cognizance of the senses, they 
could not be made the subject of observation or experiment, 
they had no existence as facts, and presented no materials from 
which to deduce logical conclusions. The learned fraternity, 
renouncing the active business of life, 

b 3 



XXXV111 INTRODUCTION. 

" Apart sat on a hill retired, 
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high 
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 
And found no end in wand' ring mazes lost." 

Paradise Lost, book ii. 

14. As we meet with brilliant eras in history, when the 
human mind appears to flourish in unusual health and strength, 
and to produce its fruits with unexampled profusion and feli- 
city, the age of Pericles in Greece, of Augustus at Home, of 
Leo the Tenth in Italy, of Louis the Fourteenth in France, 
and of Queen Anne in England, so periods of desolation and 
barrenness appear to recur in different ages and countries with 
precisely the same characteristics. What is called Philosophy 
in Hindustan, is so much like the body of learning denomi- 
nated Scholastic Theology in Europe, that, if I could believe in 
the Oriental doctrine of transmigration, I should fancy that 
the souls of the Indian Brahmins had passed into the bodies 
of the schoolmen of the middle ages, occupying in their 
transition, as a sort of half-way house, those of the Greek 
sophists of the school of Gorgias of Leontium, and of the 
Eclectics or later Platonists. 

15. We may remark that, in another department of science, 
not only there can be nothing deserving the name of know- 
ledge, until after the collection of a large mass of facts, but 
that the value of the knowledge will depend on the variety of 
the facts collected, the accuracy with which they have been 
observed, and the fidelity with which they have been recorded. 
For instance, the speculations of the Greeks on the subject of 
Politics are of little value compared with those on many 
other topics. The reason is obvious ; they lived in too early 
an age of the world, too soon after the invention of alpha- 
betical writing, and the dawn of genuine and authentic, that 
is, of contemporary history, of which Herodotus may almost 
be said to be the father. In the next place, their field of 
observation was too narrow, as they had nothing before them 
but their own little republics, to furnish matter for speculation, 
and accordingly their conclusions are comparatively of small 
worth ; certainly not from want of intellectual activity, but 



INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 

from want of materials on which to employ it, not from fee- 
bleness of mind, but from deficiency of matter. In another 
department of the art of government, that of Political Eco- 
nomy, or the science of the creation of public wealth, they 
can hardly be said to have made a commencement, except, 
perhaps, in some of the works of Xenophon. Of the extreme 
negligence with which statistical facts were observed and re- 
corded even up to a late period, a striking instance occurs in the 
great work of Adam Smith, on the Wealth of Nations. Well- 
informed as he was on the general subject, and indefatigable 
as he had been in collecting all the materials within his reach, 
with the subject of population, and the laws by which it is 
regulated, he was so little acquainted, that he supposed that 
of Europe required five hundred years to double it ; while 
it appears, by the latest authorities, that that of Prussia is 
now doubling in 26, that of Great Britain in 52, that of 
Austria in 69, that of Russia in 66, and that of France in 
105 years.* During a quarter of a century later, the 
great fear of political writers was, that the world would be 
depopulated; and towards the end of the century, when 
Malthus published his Essay on the Principle of Population, 
and demonstrated that in every country it is solely limited 
by, and has a constant tendency to outrun, the means of 
subsistence, the bare statement of the fact came with all the 
force of a discovery. 

16. If we turn from Political Philosophy and Political 
Economy to Physics, we shall perceive, not merely that all 
sound knowledge must be based on a foundation of facts, 
collected by observation and experiment, but that, from the 
moment when facts begin to be accurately observed and 
faithfully recorded, we may be quite sure that knowledge is 
advancing, however unsatisfactory, inadequate, or even false 
the theories may be which are deduced from them; and 
although year after year, and even century after century, 
the tree of knowledge should appear to produce nothing but 
leaves, we may be confident that fruit will follow. If we 
revert to the history of Astronomy, we may ask what has 

% Alison's History of Europe, vol. ii. p. 35. 
b 4 



xl INTRODUCTION. 

become of the system of Ptolenry, " with its cycle on epicycle, 
orb on orb." The theory, or hypothesis, which pretended to 
account for the motions of the celestial bodies lias been long 
estimated at its just value, and consigned to deserved ob- 
livion, but Ptolemy was an indefatigable and accurate ob- 
server of natural phenomena, and many of his observations 
have found a permanent place in the body of astronomical 
science. And, at a much later period, Tycho Brahe, even 
with Kepler at his elbow, was a firm believer in the Ptole- 
maic system, and yet few have rendered more essential service 
to astronomy, or promoted its advance more effectually. He 
was enthusiastically attached to the science, and a diligent 
observer and faithful recorder of astronomical phenomena, 
and that being the case the falseness of his reasonings, did 
not at all detract from the value of his facts, and he is to be 
named with Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, as accumu- 
lating materials and preparing the way for the maturity of 
the science in the hands of Newton, La Grange, and La 
Place. 

17. Geology is a science which may be said to have been 
created in our own times, and it began to deserve that name 
from the period that it found an accurate and unwearied 
observer of nature, and an industrious collector of facts in 
Werner. Long before his time we had cosmogonies in abun- 
dance. There was Burnet's Sacred Theory of the Earth, in 
1681; followed by Whiston's New Theory of the Earth, from 
its Original to the Consummation of all Things, about 1694 ; 
and Whitehurst's Enquiries into the Original State and 
Formation of the Earth, published in 1778 ; and Howard on 
the Structure of the Globe, and a host of other works of a 
similar description. Cosmogony stands in pretty much the 
same relation to Geology, as Astrology does to Astronomy, 
Alchemy to Chemistry, and Perpetual-motion to Mechanics. 
The unbounded stores of physical knowledge possessed by 
Cuvier, incomparably the greatest natural philosopher of our 
times, joined to his vast powers of original thought and 
logical reasoning, brought a new class of facts derived from 
Comparative Anatomy to bear on Geology ; and, with an 



INTRODUCTION, xli 

acuteness which it is impossible to admire too much, he con- 
trived to make organic remains the test of geological truth. 
Who, prior to experience, could have dreamed of the possi- 
bility of such an alliance ? And who at the present moment, 
seeing how much has been effected, will pretend to limit the 
application of such an instrument? Already Geology and 
Comparative Anatomy have united themselves with Chro- 
nology, and proved to demonstration that we can no longer 
continue to limit the duration of the globe we inhabit to a 
few thousand years, though perhaps we may that of our own 
species ; that it is as old as the solar system of which it 
forms a part, and that system as the great system of the 
universe ; and that the latter may be said to have existed 
from all eternity, as it is difficult to conceive of a time when 
it was not; not, indeed, a metaphysical eternity, or that 
which was absolutely without beginning, which applies to 
nothing created, and solely to the great Creator of all things, 
but a period of time so vast, that our limited faculties cannot 
discriminate it from eternity, a period which we have neither 
minds to conceive, words to describe, nor numbers to desig- 
nate. As Geology commenced prematurely with Cosmogony, 
perhaps in its most advanced state it may terminate in Cos- 
mogony again, and after some centuries of observation, de- 
voted to the careful collection of facts, we may be able to give 
not merely a probable, but a true account of the age of the 
different strata of the earth, the order in which they appeared, 
the process by which they were formed, and the laws agree- 
ably to which they were deposited. 

18. While the Baconian system informs us that no branch 
of human attainment deserves the name of knowledge, unless 
founded on facts, and that the knowledge possesses a charac- 
ter of solidity and permanence in proportion as the facts are 
numerous and well denned, I do not remember to have seen 
it remarked by the great author of that system, or any of 
his successors, how large a portion of human knowledge and 
acquirement is limited to the investigation of what is fact, 
which is pursued as an ultimate end, and that incomparably 
more severe exertions of the logical faculty are requisite to 



xlii INTRODUCTION. 

ascertain what is real and what is fictitious, than to deduce 
just conclusions from the data after they are discovered. 
For instance, this appears to me to be the case with that 
large class of questions which treat of events that happened, 
or are supposed to have happened, before the general use of 
alphabetical writing and the existence of authentic history ; 
the origin of ancient nations, their primitive seats, their early 
migrations, the route they pursued, the obstacles they en- 
countered, the language they spoke, the forms of govern- 
ment they established, the deities they worshipped, the laws 
they enacted, the sciences they originated, the arts they 
practised, the virtues by which they were adorned, and the 
vices by which they were disfigured. In moral subjects of 
this sort we are as much, perhaps more, perplexed by the 
paucity and uncertainty, than in our physical inquiries by 
the exuberance and diversity, of facts. On many of these 
topics we have volumes of dissertations, the subject of which 
was clearly a nonentity, and never existed at all, so that to 
engage in such inquiries is like sowing the wind to reap the 
whirlwind. In connexion with the early history of Hindus- 
tan, we have elaborate investigations as to the chronological 
era when Fo, or Budha, made his appearance, and from the 
contradictory accounts some have supposed two and some 
more ; while there is conclusive evidence from the epithets 
or names of Budha in Sanskrit, to prove that it is merely 
one of the innumerable Asiatic names of the sun, and that 
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are no more. The Indian Budha 
is identical with the European Woden, and in the antiquities 
of the Northern nations, we are perplexed with the same 
inquiries respecting the period of his appearance, as we had 
previously been with regard to that of his Indian prototype, 
and of course with the same success ; for how can we write a 
history of that which never existed ? There can be nothing 
of an historical character in such inquiries, but the period 
at which the people first appeared who professed to follow 
Budha, or Woden, called themselves after their names, and 
• ascribed to them the origin of a code of religious opinions, 
moral precepts, and ceremonial observances. The chronology 



INTRODUCTION. xliii 

of the early, or heroic, ages of Greece, as we read it arranged 
in tables, is little more than a transcript from the Parian 
marble, and the latter had no existence until after the age of 
Alexander, and may well be denominated a composition in 
more senses than one. Up to the period of Herodotus all 
detail is little more than waste of time, until we have asked 
and satisfied ourselves as to the previous question, Did such 
a person ever live, did the events ascribed to him ever really 
happen? Menes, the reputed founder of the Egyptian 
monarchy, appears to be identical with the Indian Menu, or 
Menus, a name of the sun ; Nimrod, the founder of the As- 
syrian monarchy, is a Persic name of the sun ; and there 
appears to have been a fabulous Cyrus, the founder of the 
Persian monarchy, whose exploits are mixed up with the true 
one, the name being derived from the Persic word Khur, the 
literal name of the sun, with the Greek termination Os. 
Phoroneus, the second king of Argos, is identical with Pha- 
roah, or Pharaon, in Coptic a name of the sun. Memnon, 
the son of Aurora, or the dawn, and Tithonus, or the earth, 
was a name of the sun, and probably identical with the sup- 
posed inventor of letters of that name in Egypt. Cadmus is 
the Hebrew word Kedem, the east ; Abaris, the Scythian, the 
Latin word Jubar, a sun-beam, in the Oriental languages 
probably written Aibar ; and Orpheus, the inventor of letters, 
the Arabic word Harf, a letter, a mere abstraction, or per- 
sonification. Though the Argonautic Expedition, the War 
of Thebes, and the Siege of Troy, are related at greater length, 
I believe they are not one jot more real or veracious than the 
earlier events in Grecian history, and to make them the basis 
of a chronological system is really like attempting to apply 
chronology to the novel of Clarissa Harlowe, or any similar 
work of fiction. Nay, such was Richardson's spirit of minute 
accuracy, that I think it highly probable that the work 
was written with an almanack before him, and that it would 
be found very difficult to convict him of the fault into which 
Mrs. Radcliffe is said to have sometimes fallen, of having two 
full moons in one month. 

19. Perhaps one of the most powerful illustrations of the 



xtty INTRODUCTION. 

essential difference between Metaphysics and Physics is af- 
forded by the Economical history of England during the last 
three quarters of a century. Of the large class of subjects 
denominated metaphysical, many were as well understood by 
the Greek philosophers two or three and twenty hundred 
years ago, as they are now, or as they will be two or three 
and twenty hundred years hence. They are not founded on 
fact, cannot be improved by observation, or become the 
subject of experiment, are not cognizable by the senses, 
hardly conceivable by the understanding, and, not being 
susceptible of being defined in words, cannot become matter 
of reasoning. Let us contrast this with a few of the results 
produced by Mechanics and Chemistry, results so powerful, 
that they have already changed the whole face of society, and 
opened a future prospect of indefinite improvement. In 
enumerating the causes which tend most efficaciously to 
promote the progress of national wealth, the political econo- 
mist places in the foremost rank the division of labour, or 
that arrangement by which one man's exertions are confined 
to one trade, or to one branch of a complicated manufacture, 
the effect of which has been to increase his skill, augment his 
power of production, and ultimately lower the price of the 
article on which his labour is employed, or in which it is 
fixed. The division of labour, independently of its result to 
increase manual skill and dexterity, has tended in at least 
an equal degree to improve machinery, by its effect of 
keeping any particular process constantly before the eyes of 
the labourer, and making it almost the only subject of his 
thoughts. About the year 1760, Hargreaves, a common 
weaver, invented the carding machine, and in 1767 the 
spinning jenny, which, by working eighty spindles, increased 
human power eighty-fold. Mythology describes Briareus 
with his hundred hands as warring against the gods, but 
here every hand was more usefully employed, with the addi- 
tional advantage that he would be quiet when you desired 
him to be so ; unlike some domestic utensils in the Oriental 
tale, which, being converted into water-carriers by the spell 
of some magician, and no force being able to stop them short 



INTRODUCTION. xlv 

of that which had set them in motion,, persevered in their 
labour until they were in danger of inundating a city. 
About the same period, Sir Richard Arkwright invented that 
still more extraordinary piece of mechanism, the spinning 
frame. In 1775, Mr. Samuel Crompton invented the mule 
jenny, a great improvement upon Sir Richard Arkwright's 
invention ; and, by the united operation of all these inven- 
tions, the productive poivers of labour were increased to a 
degree that the most sanguine could never have dreamed of. 

20. So far as the improvement and excellence of ma- 
chinery were concerned, hardly anything was left to be 
wished for ; but in another branch of the subject there was 
still a great want and deficiency, which became more obvious 
and pressing in the exact ratio that machinery attained 
perfection, and that the manufacturing interest was extended, 
this was the want of a moving power. Of this, up to that 
period, only two kinds had been employed, that of horses and 
that of water. The first was both expensive in its nature, 
and limited in its application ; and the second entailed the 
very inconvenient necessity of building all manufactories in 
the vicinity of considerable streams of running water, while 
the interests of the proprietors and the convenience of the 
workmen required that they should be situated in the very 
centre of Glasgow, Manchester, or London ; and a beautiful 
invention was soon devised by which every inconvenience 
was remedied, and every advantage attained. In the year 
1761, accident directed the attention of Mr. James Watt, 
one of those extraordinary men who appear from time to 
time destined to effect improvements so vast, productive of 
consequences so important, that they revolutionise the forms 
and fashions of society, to the circumstance of the prodigious 
expansive power of steam ; when the fortunate idea occurred 
to him that it might, by possibility, be used with success as 
a general moving force * ; and the final result of many experi- 
ments and many failures, of contrivances which exhausted all 

* The principle of the steam-engine was known to the Marquess of 
Worcester, but for all practical purposes Mr. James Watt may be regarded 
as its inventor. 



xlvi INTRODUCTION. 

the resources of mechanics, and expedients which availed 
themselves of all the improvements of chemistry, was the 
steam-engine, beyond all controversy one of the noblest 
monuments of human perseverance, ingenuity, and invention. 
The battle was now completely gained. Like another be- 
nevolent Prometheus, Mr. Watt came to assist the fortunes 
and raise the condition of man, and the Titans, the emblems 
of the powers of nature, were enlisted on the side of hu- 
manity. Enceladus, instead of shaking Etna with his convul- 
sive throes, communicated motion throughout all the parts of a 
vast manufactory of six or seven stories ; while Briareus with 
his hundred arms turned the spindle, plied the shuttle, and 
directed the loom. 

21. Though so much was achieved, the powers of the 
steam-engine, so far from being exhausted, were hardly de- 
veloped. Two distinct triumphs were in reserve for it, which 
have since been completed ; and how many more are to follow, 
it would be difficult to say. After the fact had been es- 
tablished that the steam-engine was susceptible of being so 
employed as to convey almost every modification of motion 
to almost every species of machinery, a long interval of time 
was suffered to elapse before it appears to have occurred to 
any one that the steam-engine might be applied to the pro- 
duction of locomotion, with as much success as to commu- 
nicating an impetus to machinery. It would be more strictly 
correct, however, to say, that no practical man attempted so 
to employ it, than that speculative men had not conceived 
the idea that it might be so employed ; for in Dr. Darwin's 
Botanic Garden, the third and last part of which appeared 
in 1792, we find the following curious prophecy? which is 
now in the process of being accomplished in every part of 
Europe, America, and even Asia : — 

" Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd Steam, afar 
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car." Canto 1 . 

Even after the steam-engine had been applied successfully 
to the purpose of navigation on the great rivers of Ame- 
rica, doubts continued to be raised if it could be made 



INTRODUCTION. Xivil 

available for sea-going vessels ; and, after it had been so em- 
ployed, another considerable interval elapsed before the idea 
appears to have been seriously entertained of using it as a 
moving force on terra Jirma, and making it instrumental on 
railroads, and even then the leading, if not the sole, idea was, 
that steam power might be applied advantageously to trans- 
porting heavy weights ; that it might become the source of 
quick motion was little dreamed of; in the language of 
Darwin, it might " drag the slow barge," but could hardly be 
expected to " drive the rapid car ; " and when Mr. George 
Stephenson, the distinguished engineer, whose name is so 
honourably identified with the original formation and subse- 
quent improvement of railroads, first suggested the possibility 
of progressing on them at the rate of twelve miles an hour, 
he was laughed to scorn by practical men, but he has had an 
ample triumph since, in witnessing that rate doubled, 
trebled, and for short distances even quintupled. 

22. It is almost as difficult to bring home and familiarise 
to the mind the effects already produced by the application 
of steam as a moving force to railroads, as to anticipate the 
results reserved for it to achieve. It has more than realised, 
as to the rate of speed, all that we ever read in the Arabian 
Nights, about flying chests and enchanted horses. Sup- 
posing the ordinary rate of stage-coach travelling to have 
been about six miles an hour, and the greatest sustained rate 
of railway travelling to be about forty-five miles an hour, 
you now, by the latter mode of travelling, reach Exeter in 
about the same time as would have taken you by the former 
to Windsor. Practically, therefore, to the inhabitants of 
London, railway travelling has brought Exeter to Windsor, 
and Liverpool to Tring, and it will bring York to Luton, 
and Edinburgh to York. It has rendered Milan as easily 
accessible as Paris used to be by the old system of diligence 
travelling, and will eventually bring Naples to Milan. Six 
hours now on the continental railroads will carry the tra- 
veller over the same space as, under the old system, occupied 
four and twenty. So much as to the mere saving of time ; 
but, in the next place, you are carried without any jolting or 



xlviii INTRODUCTION, 

feeling of fatigue, or without any expense except that of the 
carriage itself, as from the rapid rate of speed you may 
travel two hundred miles without requiring any refreshment. 
In the course of a few years, probably, the immense superiority 
of railway travelling will cause one of the greatest achieve- 
ments of the fifteenth century to be comparatively forgotten, 
and the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good 
Hope, so far at least as passengers are concerned, be as little 
frequented as before that celebrated Cape was doubled by 
Vasco de Gama, the ordinary route being the Mediterranean, 
Egypt, the Desert, and the Red Sea, or the Persian Gulf, 
should our good understanding with the courts of Constan- 
tinople and Teheran be unable to effect a continuous rail- 
road from the Mediterranean to the Indus. If the duration 
of life is to be measured by the amount of interesting objects 
we are enabled to survey and study, railway travelling may 
be said to have quadrupled it, and brought back the 
patriarchal ages. Its direct influence on the promotion of 
general knowledge is likely to be prodigious, as distance 
may almost be said to be annihilated. In the language of 
the Vulgate, " Pertransibunt terram et augebitur scientia." 
Nor is its effect likely to be less powerful on the advancement 
of physical science, more especially those branches of it which 
depend on accurate, varied, and extensive observation, 
Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, Electricity, Magnetism, 
Meteorology, Astronomy, and Geography. In a politico- 
economical point of view, the effects of railways are likely to 
be most important. Ultimately they are probably destined 
to supersede every other mode of inland conveyance, both 
for passengers and goods ; and, as the horses now employed in 
drawing coaches and w T aggons will thereby be rendered un- 
necessary, the ground employed at present in raising hay and 
oats for them may be converted to growing corn, and feeding- 
cattle for the support of human beings. From the increased 
facility of transporting manure, and bringing the produce of 
the most distant estates to market, new soils are likely to be 
brought under cultivation, and those already cultivated to be 
rendered more productive, so that population may go on 
augmenting at its present rate not only without any increase 



INTRODUCTION. _ xlix 

of price in the necessaries of life, but even with a great 
reduction. The experience of the thirty years that have 
elapsed since the General Pacification of 1815, tends to dis- 
prove one of the leading facts on which Malthus founded 
many of the reasonings in his celebrated Essay, that all the 
first quality land in England was already brought under culti- 
vation, and that as additional supplies of food could only be 
raised by resorting continually to worse and worse soils, which 
with a greater outlay of capital would produce a more scanty 
return, the price of food must go on increasing in a rapid ratio, 
and either check the rate of increase of the population of the 
country, or the rate continuing the same, deteriorate the con- 
dition of the labouring classes, and engender more intense 
wretchedness. Now the course of events has been so far 
from realising this prediction, that in the year 1835 wheat, 
for the first time for a hundred years, was below forty shil- 
lings a quarter, while the average amount of foreign grain 
imported has been steadily diminishing ever since the com- 
mencement of the present century * ; a conclusive proof that 
Malthus, with all his acuteness and sagacity, had mistaken 
the artificial rise in the price of corn resulting from the de- 
preciation of the paper currency, for the natural rise which 
would be the inevitable effect of the diminished fertility of 
the soil, and the exhaustion of the powers of nature. In a 
political point of view, the consequences of railroads will 
probably be great. In proportion as it becomes more easy 
to visit distant parts of the world, distant parts of the world 
will be more visited. Perhaps in a few years all the coun- 
tries of Europe will be as easily accessible, and at as small an 
expenditure of time and labour as the different counties of 
England are at present, and the countries of Asia then, as of 
Europe now ; and it will be as discreditable for a man calling 
himself a traveller not to have looked into the cavern temples 
of Ellora and Elephanta, as not to have 

" Stood within the Coliseum's wall, 
Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome." 

Byron's Manfred, 

* Alison's History of Europe, vol. x. p. 512. 
C 



1 INTRODUCTION. 

23. The effect of all this must be, not only to make us 
better acquainted with the face of the earth, and with all the 
appearances, productions, and operations of nature, but to 
enlarge in an equal degree our stores of moral and political 
information, augment our acquaintance with human nature, 
and make man better known to man. JSTew desires will be 
raised, and new products discovered susceptible of gratifying 
them; new capacities developed, and new objects devised 
capable of giving them full exercise and employment. We 
may reasonably expect that the first effect of this will be 
to soften national prejudices, to moderate national antipathies, 
and calm national passions ; to convince the various people of 
the earth of their close connexion with, and intimate de- 
pendence on, each other ; and demonstrate how much more is 
to be gained by the peaceable exchanges of commerce than 
by the cruel ravages of war, and how infinitely the fruits of 
love transcend those of hate. Perhaps the last and best 
effect will be to mitigate the bitter feelings arising out of the 
diversity of religious creeds, that worst passion of human 
nature, which has always been the first to take up arms, and 
the last to lay them down, the odium theologicum ; to induce 
the votaries of Moses and Mahomet, of Budha and Brahma, 
of Christ and Confucius, convinced that the creeds of all 
contain much that is excellent, to tolerate what each regards 
as objectionable in the other, and, since the imperfection of 
human nature and the weakness of human reason will not 
allow them to agree, to come to a mutual understanding, that 
they will at least agree to differ. 

24. Perhaps at no period since the very early stages of 
the French Revolution, that great event so pregnant with 
hopes and disappointments, with virtues and crimes, could 
the sanguine expectations contained in the following passage 
of Condorcet, as to the possible future attainments of the 
species, have appeared less extravagant, or better warranted 
by the general aspect and rapid improvement of society. 
" To such of my readers as may be slow in admitting the 
possibility of this progressive improvement in the human 
race, allow me to state as an example the history of that 



INTRODUCTION. h 

science in which the advances of discovery are the most 
certain, and in which they may be measured with the 
greatest precision. Those elementary truths of geometry 
and of astronomy, which in India and Egypt formed an oc- 
cult science upon which an ambitious priesthood founded its 
influence, were become in the time of Archimedes and Hip- 
parchus the subjects of common education in the public 
schools of Greece. In the last century a few years of study 
were sufficient for comprehending all that Archimedes and 
Hipparchus knew ; and, at present, two years employed 
under an able teacher carry the student beyond those con- 
clusions which limited the inquiries of Leibnitz and of 
Newton. Let any person reflect on these facts : let him 
follow the immense chain which connects the inquiries of 
Euler with those of a priest of Memphis ; let him observe at 
each epoch how genius outstrips the present age, and how it 
is overtaken by mediocrity in the next ; he will perceive that 
nature has furnished us with the means of abridging and fa- 
cilitating our intellectual labour, and that there is no reason 
for apprehending that simplifications can ever have an end. 
He will perceive that, at the moment when a multitude 
of particular solutions and of insulated facts begin to distract 
the attention and to overcharge the memory, the former 
gradually lose themselves in one general method, and the 
latter unite in one general law ; and that these generali- 
sations continually succeeding, one to another, like the suc- 
cessive multiplications of a number by itself, have no other 
limit than that infinity which the human faculties are unable 
to comprehend." (Condorcet sur lTnstruction Publique, as 
quoted in Dugald Stewart's Philosophy of the Human 
Mind, vol. i. p. 222.) 



MITHRIDATES MINOR 



AN ESSAY ON LANGUAGE 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE OF MANKIND. 



" Blissful Paradise 
Of God the garden was, by him in the east 
Of Eden planted ; Eden stretch'd her line 
From Auran eastward to the royal towers 
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, 
Or where the sons of Eden long before 
Dwelt in Telassar." Paradise Lost, book iv. 

I. The Book of Genesis, a work believed equally by the 
Jewish, the Christian, and the Mahommedan world to be 
the oldest written composition possessed by the human race, 
commences its eleventh chapter with the following unequi- 
vocal declaration, " and the whole earth was of one language, 
and one speech." So much has been written about the primi- 
tive language of mankind, and to so little purpose, that it is not 
my intention to make any considerable addition to the quantity. 
Some have taken it for granted that the oldest written lan- 
guage must necessarily be that primitive language ; which is 
to reason very inconsequentially, as we know that many 
ancient languages have disappeared from the face of the earth, 
leaving hardly a trace of their having existed ; the Punic or 
Carthaginian for instance: and such may very well have 
been the case with the primitive language in question. One 

B 



2 PEIMITIVE LANGUAGE 

of the most illustrious of English scholars, Bentley, in his 
Dissertation upon Phalaris, expresses himself on this subject 
as follows, " We are sure from the names of persons and 
places mentioned in Scripture before the Deluge, not to in- 
sist upon other arguments, that the Hebrew was the primi- 
tive language of mankind ; and it continued pure for above 
3000 years, till the captivity into Babylon. Even from the 
date of the Mosaic law to the prophecy of Ezekiel, there is 
a distance of 900 years ; yet the language of the two writers 
is the very same. (Works, vol. ii. p. 11. London, 1836.) On 
the other hand Sir William Jones, who was, perhaps, as 
much above Bentley as a general linguist, as he was inferior 
to him as a profound classical scholar, a department of litera- 
ture in which Bentley has had no superior, and very few 
equals, says, " if it be urged that those radicals (adduced by 
Bryant) are precious traces of the primitive language, from 
which all others were derived, or to which at least they were 
subsequent, I can only declare my belief, that the language 
of Noah is lost irretrievably ; and assure you, that, after a dili- 
gent search, I cannot find a single word used in common by 
the Arabian, Indian, and Tartar families before the inter- 
mixture of dialects occasioned by the Mahommedan conquests." 
(Works, vol. iii. p. 199. 13 vols. 8vo. London, 1807.) 
What is to be said after this ? 

" Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites, 
Et vitula tu dignus, et He." Virg. Eel. iii. I. 108. 

II. If this primitive language, however, be entirely lost, or 
if, which comes to nearly the same thing, among actually 
existing languages, philologists cannot agree in allowing a 
superiority in point of antiquity to any one, can any unob- 
jectionable criterion be devised, which avoiding all gratuitous 
assumption, steering clear of all unfounded hypothesis, and 
based on the evidence of undeniable facts alone, may guide 
us in the selection of some of the oldest languages, as the 
nearest approximation we are capable of making to that pri- 
mitive language which Sir William Jones informs us we 
must not hope to recover ? I know of no better practical 



OP MANKIND. 6 

test, than in the first instance to select that specimen of 
written composition, which mankind are generally agreed in 
regarding as the oldest ; and in the next, to endeavour to 
ascertain such clear traces of the existence of distinct lan- 
guages, as are contained in that composition. Single words 
are obviously the only specimens we can expect to meet with, 
and these will generally be the names of persons and places ; 
and as all proper names were originally significant, the test 
of a foreign idiom will be, that they have no meaning in the 
language which is the basis of the written composition, and 
a distinct one in other languages. The Christian and Ma- 
hommedan world are equally agreed in regarding the five 
Books of the Hebrew Pentateuch, together with those of 
Joshua and Judges, which contain the history of the Jewish 
theocracy prior to the establishment of the monarchy, as the 
oldest specimens of alphabetical writing in the world ; and 
the only question therefore is, what admixture of foreign 
languages do those books contain, and what words which 
are not Hebrew ? 

in. I think we may safely assert, that proofs of the exist- 
ence of at least seven foreign languages, are clearly deducible 
from the first seven books of the Old Testament. 

1. Egyptian. 

Moses, in the Hebrew Mosheh, — from Moou (Coptic), water ; 

Ski, to take, or lay 
hold on — 
by contraction and reading the Egyptian letter Skima as 
Sigma, with a Greek termination, Moses. " And she called 
his name Moses : and she said, because I drew him out of the 
water" (Exodus, ii. 10.) Here the reader will observe, that 
in the above and many similar instances which will be ad^ 
duced, the words printed in italics, as they leave no doubt 
whatever as to the meaning of the name, admit as little as to 
the language from which that name was derived. 

Pithom, Pi (Coptic), definite article, masculine. 

Thorn, a wall. 
Raamses, Bamao (Coptic), rich. 

B 2 



4 PEIMITIVE LANGUAGE 

"And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and 
Raamses" (Exodus, i. 11.); the first denominated from its 
strength, and the second from the wealth it contained. The 
Rhamses mentioned by Tacitus appears to be altogether a 
creation of mythology, and merely a personification of riches. 

2. Sanskrit. 
Jabal, Jabala (Sanskrit), a goatherd. 

" And Adah bare Jabal ; he was the father of such as dwell 
intents, and of such as have cattle." (Genesis, iv. 20.) Jabal 
in Hebrew is not significant. 

Palestine, Pali (Sanskrit), a shepherd. 
Stana, a place. 
" And they said unto Pharaoh, thy servants are shepherds ; 
both we and also our fathers." (Genesis, xlvii. 3.) 

3. Arabic, 

Tubal Cain. — The first word is the Hebrew Baal, lord, 
with the definite article Hay (h) converted into Tav (t) ; and 
the second the Arabic Kayn, a blacksmith (Richardson). 
" And Zillah she also bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every 
artificer in brass and iron." (Genesis, iv. 22.) The literal 
meaning of Tubal Cain is the lord of blacksmiths. From 
Baal Cain we have the Latin Vulcan, according to Yossius 
(Facciolati). 

Euphrates, Eu (Greek), good. 

Prat (Arabic), pure, fresh water. 
In the Hebrew the name of the river is Phrat, or Pherath ; 
a word not significant, but clearly cognate with the Arabic 
Frat. 

Hiddekel, Daykal (Arabic), a branch ; also the river Tigris, 
with the Hebrew definite article Hay (h) pre- 
fixed and coalescing. 

At whatever period the rivers of Paradise were named, the 
Arabic language was in existence : and those rivers still bear 
among the Arabs the precise names by which they are de- 
scribed in the second chapter of Genesis. 



OF MANKIND. 5 

4. Persic. 

Paradise, Firdaws (Persic), a garden, or rather an enclosed 
park, or chace for hunting. 

Shinar ; the word appears to be used (Genesis, xi. 2.) as equi- 
valent to the modern Mesopotamia ; but it is of Persic 
origin, and in that language means the bottom of any 
piece of water, and describes the nature of the country 
between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. 

Gershom, Gair (Hebrew), a stranger. 
Shum (Persic), I am. 

" And he called his name Gershom : for he said, I have been 
a stranger in a strange land." (Exodus, ii. 22.) 

5. Turkish, or Mongol- Tartaric. 
Ajalon, Ai (Turkish), the moon. 
Lun (Hebrew), to dwell. 
" And thou moon in the valley of Ajalon." (Joshua, x. 15.) 
We are quite sure not only that Lun signified city, but that 
it formed part of compound words like the above, as Strabo 
says that Pampeluna in Spain signified city of Pompey. 
The meaning of Ajalon, therefore, was city of the moon, no 
doubt from being dedicated to Ashtoreth, the Horned Astarte, 
or the queen of heaven. A city of the name of Ai also 
occurs in the book of Joshua. 

6. Syriac. 

Galeed (Hebrew), Jegar-sahadutha, heap of witness (Syriac). 

" And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha : but Jacob called it 
Galeed." (Genesis, xxxi. 47.) 

7. Greek. 

Anakim, Anax (Pausanias), a Titan, a son of the earth, with 
the (Hebrew) plural termination im, Anakim. 
" And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which 
come of the giants." (Numbers, xiii. 33.) I believe the word 
Zamzummim to have had a similar meaning, and to have 
been corrupted from the (Persic) Zamin, earth, and Ainmira, 

B 3 



b PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE 

(Hebrew) people, i. e. people of the earth, or earth-bora. 
(Deuteronomy, ii. 20.) 

Seir (Hebrew) ; Seir, and Seirios (Greek), the sun. 

Anakim and Seir appear to me to be Greek words written 
in Hebrew characters. This meaning of Seir is corroborated 
by the context : " as he did to the children of Esau which 
dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before 
them." (Deuteronomy, ii. 22.) Horims from Khur (Persic), 
the sun, and so denominated from being sun-worshippers. 

iv. If we adopt Bentley's mode of reasoning, we shall 
perceive that it is not tenable for a moment. The words 
Tubal Cain, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Phrat (Euphrates) are 
mentioned in Scripture before the Deluge. But these words 
are Arabic; therefore the Arabic was the primitive lan- 
guage of mankind. But the word Jabal also occurs before 
the Deluge ; therefore the Sanskrit was the primitive lan- 
guage of mankind, and so of many of the others. Dismissing 
all hypothesis, however, the above languages are at least as 
old as the oldest books of the Bible, and in the present state 
of our knowledge, must be regarded as forming parts of a 
primitive language which probably contained the roots or 
elements of all the languages now spoken by mankind. The 
very etymology of Palestine, or Philistia, the country in 
which the Jews settled, appears to be Sanskrit ; a strong 
presumption, if all others were wanting, of the existence of 
languages much older than their own. 

v. With respect to the principle on which I have selected 
the languages to be examined, there was less difficulty to be 
encountered, as little aid in determining the affiliation of 
people and nations could be expected from languages, unless 
they possessed a certain degree of antiquity ; and as the 
class of language denominated by Adelung Indo-European, is 
the only one that can be regarded as containing written com- 
positions, deserving the name of old. In adopting this ar- 
rangement, however, I must beg leave, with some of the 
ancient geographers, to regard Egypt as in Asia rather than 
Africa, or at any rate to include the Coptic and Sahidic in 
the Indo-European class, as well as the spoken Chinese, 



OP MANKIND. 7 

which presents numerous analogies with the Sanskrit, the 
Persic, the Greek, and the Latin, and is quite as well de- 
serving of attention as their system of real characters, curious 
as the latter undoubtedly is. A wish to appreciate the just- 
ness of that theory of Sir William Jones, in which he traces 
the languages of Asia to three principal sources, induced me 
to cast a glance on two or three languages of the Tartaric 
class ; and as the limited nature of my plan precluded me 
from entering on the vast field of the languages of Africa and 
of North and South America generally, I have been satisfied 
with devoting a short chapter to each of those great continents. 
VI. With my present views I should arrange the principal 
written languages, ancient and modern, of Asia and Europe, 
somewhat in the following order : — 

1. Chinese (the spoken language). 

2. Egyptian (Coptic and Sahidic). 

The Chinese connects itself with the Egyptian by means 
of two hieroglyphic characters, those of the sun and moon; 
agreeing precisely as to form, and probably also as to name ; 
and by one Egyptian letter Schei, clearly deducible from a 
Chinese hieroglyphic. 

The Arabic or Shemitic Family, 

1. Arabic. 

2. Hebrew. 

3. Assyrian, Chaldee, or Eastern Aramean. 

4. Syriac, or Western Aramean. 

5. Samaritan, Phoenician, or Tyrian. 

6. Punic, or Carthaginian. 

7. Ethiopic, Geez, or Axumitic. 

8. Amharic. 

The Sanskrit, or Indian Family. 

1. Sanskrit (Prakrit). 

2. Persic. 

3. Sarmatian, or Slavonic. 

4. Median. 

B 4 



8 PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE 

5. Zendish. 

6. Pehlvi. 

7. Languages of Asia Minor, not Greek. 

8. Scythian, Cimmerian, or Celtic. 

9. Greek. 

10. Etruscan, or Old Italian. 

11. Latin, or Roman. 

12. Italian and rustic language of ancient Italy. 

13. Mseso-Gothic, Mysian, Phrygian, or Trojan. 

14. Anglo-Saxon and English. 

15. Prankish and German. 

Tartaric Class. 

1. Mantchou. 

2. Mogul, Ouigour, and Turkish. 

3. Armenian. 

vii. On the Arabic, or Shemitic family of languages, 
Heeren, one of the greatest names among continental scholars, 
in his " Asiatic Nations," a work equally distinguished by 
profound research and the philosophical spirit that pervades 
it, has the following observations: — " This perpetual change 
of language ceases as soon as we cross the river Halys, and 
enter rip on Cappadocia, comprehending the country after- 
wards called Pontus. On the eastern bank of this river 
began the empire of a mighty language, which was spoken 
from the Halys eastward as far as the Tigris, and from the 
heights of Caucasus to the southern coast of Arabia ; and 
which, with some variations, preserves everywhere a dis- 
tinctive and original character, being usually styled the 
Semitic. Its dialects were the Cappadocian in the western 
countries on the banks of the Halys ; the Syrian between 
the Mediterranean and the Euphrates ; and the Assyrian on 
the farther side of the Tigris, in Kurdistan, or the ancient 
Adiabene ; the Chaldean in Babylonia ; the Hebrew and 
Samaritan in Palestine ; the Phoenician in the maritime 
cities of Phoenicia, and their extensive colonies; and lastly, 
the Arabic, extending not only over the whole Arabian 
peninsula but also over the steppes of Mesopotamia, which 



OF MANKIND. V 

have at all times been frequented by wandering hordes of 
Arabs. Several of these dialects still survive ; with others 
we are acquainted only through their literary fragments ; and 
it cannot be doubted, that at some remote period, antecedent 
to the commencement of historical records, one mighty 
people possessed these vast plains, varying in character 
according to the nature of the country which they inhabited ; 
in the deserts of Arabia pursuing a nomad life ; in Syria, 
applying themselves to agriculture, and taking up a settled 
abode ; in Babylonia, creating the most magnificent cities of 
ancient times ; and in Phoenicia, opening the earliest ports 
and constructing fleets, which secured to them the commerce of 
the known world." (Heeren's Asiatic Nations, vol. i. p. 71.) 

viii. The next question that presents itself is, Have the 
people who spoke these languages, or the languages them- 
selves, any prominent features, or remarkable qualities, which 
enable us to fix and discriminate them ? And if I am not 
greatly mistaken, the Shemitic race and languages, the 
latter of which appear to me to be little more than dialects 
of the Arabic, may be described by the following general 
characteristics : — 

1. Many of these people have used the rite of circumcision 
from time immemorial. 

2. They have no particular name for the days of the week, 
but denominate them from the order of their succession. 

3. They omit many of the vowels in writing. 

4. Their verbs have a gender in some of the persons of 
the different tenses. 

5. Their verbs, strictly speaking, have but two tenses. 
These characteristics, with certain modifications, will, I 

think, be found generally applicable, but still require a few 
words to be said in explanation. For instance, Herodotus, 
our principal authority, informs us that the Egyptians used 
the rite of circumcision; but I have not classed them among the 
Shemitic people, and have disposed of them elsewhere with 
the Chinese. On the subject of circumcision generally 
Herodotus remarks, that the inhabitants of Colchos, Egypt, 
and Ethiopia were the only people who, from time im- 



10 PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE 

memorial, used it ; that the Phoenicians, and the Syrians of 
Palestine, acknowledged that they had borrowed the custom 
from Egypt ; that the Egyptians certainly communicated it 
to the other nations by means of their commercial know- 
ledge; and that in his time it had fallen into disuse among 
the Phoenicians connected with Greece. (Lib. ii. c. 104.) 
Again, every scholar knows that nothing can be positively 
affirmed respecting the language and mode of writing of the 
Phoenicians, except so far as it agrees with that of the 
Samaritans, the same system of alphabetical characters being 
denominated sometimes by the one name and sometimes by 
the other, while, of the language of their descendants, the 
Carthaginians, we are in the same state of ignorance. With 
these qualifications, I believe my observations with respect 
to the Shemitic people and languages will hold good, and if 
not altogether conclusive, tend to lead to something better. 

ix. The Sanskrit, or Indian family of languages, may be 
regarded as characterised by the following leading qualities 
or peculiarities; as the class, however, is much more nu- 
merous than the Shemitic, the exceptions will be found to 
constitute a much larger amount, and the rules themselves 
will require to be received with greater allowance and 
modification. 

1. Most of the people speaking such of these languages as 
are living ones, or who did speak such of them as are 
become dead ones, do not use, nor ever have used, the rite 
of circumcision. 

2. They have a particular name for every day of the 
week, borrowed from the deity to whom it is devoted. 

3. Many of them write all the vowels, and many more 
omit them to a less extent, than the people using the Arabic 
class of languages. 

4. Their verbs have no gender in the different tenses. 

5. The greater part of them have at least iive tenses, and 
in many instances these tenses are formed by the aid of the 
auxiliary verb, To be. 

For the sake of greater clearness, perhaps, it will be 
desirable to say a few words under each of these divisions : — 



OF MANKIND. 11 

1. The passage quoted from Herodotus would prove con- 
clusively, were there no other authority, that the rite of 
circumcision neither originated with, nor can be regarded as 
peculiar to, the Mosaic Law. But there is older and better 
authority, for in Genesis, xvii. 10., we read, " every man 
child among you shall be circumcised." And in the Gene- 
rations of Sanchoniatho, we meet with the following passage, 
" Moreover, Cronus visiting the different regions of the 
habitable world, gave to his daughter Athena the kingdom 
of Attica ; and when there happened a plague with a great 
mortality, Cronus offered up his only begotten son as a 
sacrifice to his father, Ouranos, and circumcised himself, and 
compelled his allies to do the same." (Cory's Ancient Frag- 
ments, p. 14.) 

The modern Persians, in common with every other people 
who have submitted their necks to the yoke of the Koran, 
received as a matter of course the rite of circumcision ; but I 
believe it was entirely unknown to their ancestors as a 
religious ceremony. 

2. The names of the days of the week cannot but be 
regarded as a most peculiar and characteristic circumstance ; 
and, what is not a little remarkable, they are not only 
devoted to the same deities, but follow each other in the 
same order in India and Europe. (Jones, vol. iv. p. 87.) I 
have read the names myself in Sanskrit, Canara, and Mah- 
ratta ; the Roman names are familiar to every classical 
scholar, and have been adopted by all the nations of southern 
Europe ; while the Germans and ourselves have followed the 
Anglo-Saxons. I cannot discover that the Greeks had par- 
ticular names for the days of the week, as the Romans had, 
except in one instance ; for the custom of regarding the 
seventh day of every month as sacred to the sun, appears to 
be at least as old as the Works and Days of Hesiod ; and the 
reason assigned for it is because Phoebus, Apollo, or the Sun, 
was born on that day. 

" Of each new moon, the rolling year around, 
The first, the fourth, the seventh are prosperous found ; 
Phoebus, the seventh, from mild Latona born, 
The golden-sworded god beheld the morn." Elton's Hesiod, 



12 PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE OF MANKIND. 

3. In all the writings of the Greeks which have come 
down to us, the vowels are expressed ; but in many of the 
Etruscan inscriptions, which can be regarded in no other 
light than a more ancient species of Greek writing, we are 
assured by the intelligent Lanzi, and may easily convince 
ourselves with our own eyes, that the vowels were omitted to 
a considerable extent. There is very little contraction in the 
ordinary mode of writing Sanskrit, except that a short is 
never written except at the commencement of a word, 
when its sound is required after a consonant as a medial or 
final, it being pronounced with it as in the alphabet, much in 
the mode proposed by the Anti-Masorists in reading Hebrew. 
We are assured by Anquetil du Perron, that in the Zendish 
not only are the vowels all written, but also the long and the 
short clearly discriminated by appropriate characters. Together 
with the alphabet of the Arabians, the modern Persians have 
adopted their mode of writing, and omit the vowels to an 
equal extent. 

4. With respect to the gender of verbs, it is a most 
material circumstance in illustrating the origin and progress 
of language. The discriminations of gender in the persons 
of the different tenses are clearly so many pronominal termi- 
nations added to a root or theme. 

5. With regard to the numerous tenses of the Sanskrit, or 
Indian class of languages, as all the Shemitic nations have 
contrived to do with two only, more than that number can- 
not be regarded as absolutely necessary. And this circum- 
stance may lead us to suspect that in the Greek irregular 
verbs many of the tenses are not formed from the theme 
under which they are arranged in the lexicon, but from some 
obsolete root which has disappeared, and which, when dis- 
covered, renders the formation of all the tenses regular. 
Also, that in the regular verbs the double futures and aorists 
were derived from distinct themes, and that, consequently, 
the Greek verb has strictly but five tenses, like the Latin, 
and the first aorist in addition. 



13 



CHAP. II. 

ON THE OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS OF ANY EXISTING ALPHA- 
BETICAL CHARACTERS. 

I. The elder Pliny in his work, which must be regarded as 
in some measure the encyclopaedia of classical antiquity, has 
a chapter on the inventions of the ancients, which, though not 
so long as the history of Beekman, contains much that is 
interesting and curious. Among other matters he has a few 
words to say on the origin of alphabetical writing. " I suppose 
letters," says he, " to have been the invention of the Assyrians, 
but others with Gellius ascribe them to the Egyptians 
instructed by Mercury, while others again insist on it that 
they were first used by the Syrians. At any rate, Cadmus 
brought sixteen letters into Greece from Phoenicia ; to which, 
during the Trojan war, Palamedes is related to have added 
four — Theta, Xi, Phi, and Chi — and Simonides as many more 
at a subsequent period — Zeta, Eta, Psi, and Omega — the 
power of all of which we recognise in our Roman alphabet. 
Aristotle~enlarges the primitive alphabet of sixteen letters 
to eighteen, by the addition of Zeta and Phi, and prefers 
ascribing the introduction of Theta and Chi to Epicharmus, 
rather than to Palamedes. Anticlides relates that letters 
were invented in Egypt by a person of the name of Menon 
(Memnon), fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus, the 
most ancient king of Greece (b. c. 1822), and endeavours to 
establish the fact by historical documents. On the other 
hand Epigenes, an author of no inconsiderable weight, teaches 
the existence of astronomical observations at Babylon, re- 
corded on baked tiles 720 years old, or according to Berosus 
and Critodemus, at least 480 years old. From all these cir- 
cumstances the use of letters appears to have been almost 
eternal. They were brought into Latium by the Pelasgi. 
(C. Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. vii. c. 56. cum notis var.) 



14 OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS 

II. It may have the appearance of ingratitude to assert 
that almost the whole of this information is little better than 
mythology, with hardly a vestige of an historical character, 
yet such I believe will prove to be the case when it is care- 
fully sifted. The clue to the whole will be found in the fact, 
that the sun, under innumerable names, was the earliest god 
of almost the whole human race, and that to him was as- 
cribed the foundation of all empires, the establishment of all 
laws, and the invention of all arts and sciences. It was re- 
marked by Sir Isaac Newton in his Chronology, that Cadmus 
is merely the Hebrew word Kedem, the east (or the sun), 
and Phoenicia his country is no more, as the Egyptian 
Phoenix was a name of the sun, and its pretended death and 
resuscitation a highly poetical allegory, in the oriental taste, 
of sun-set and sun-rising. Mercury, the Egyptian Taut, or 
Hermes, is a name of the sun from two Persic' words, Mir, 
Lord, and Khur the sun. Memnon is the sun, being the 
progeny of Aurora, or the dawn; and Tithonus, corrupted from 
Titan, or Chthon, the earth. Phoroneus is the sun, from 
two Coptic words, the definite article, masculine, Phi, and 
Ouro, king : the king, that is, of the host of heaven, consist- 
ing of the planets and stars in general. In Hebrew Pharaoh, 
in French Pharaon, which approximates very nearly to 
Phoroneus. 

in. So much for those by whom letters are said to have 
been invented, and next as to the letters themselves. It 
may seem paradoxical to assert, that after the lapse of two 
thousand, or two thousand five hundred years, we are in a 
better situation for investigating the antiquities of Greece 
than the Greeks themselves were ; yet this is undoubtedly the 
case with regard to the origin of letters ; for the Greeks and 
Romans were so indifferent about the languages of those they 
were pleased to denominate barbarians, that it is doubtful if 
Pliny, or any of the authors named by him, including Ari- 
stotle himself, had ever taken the trouble to inspect the 
alphabet of any one oriental language ; and whether we bring 
the fabulous Cadmus from Egypt with Tacitus, or from 
Arabia with Strabo, or from Phoenicia Proper with Pliny 



OF LETTERS. 15 

himself, it is quite obvious that if the investigation is to be 
brought to any satisfactory result, this ought to have been the 
first step in the inquiry. It is undoubtedly true, that the 
modern Coptic alphabet contains the twenty -four letters of 
the Greek ; but it also contains eight letters which have no 
place in that alphabet, and which may, by possibility, be 
much older. If letters were invented by the Assyrians, or 
eastern Arameans, the system of Chaldee letters in which 
Hebrew books are now written, appears by common consent 
to belong to them. If by the Syrians, or Western Arameans, 
we find two perfectly distinct systems of alphabetical cha- 
racters, in the Estrangolo or old Syriac, now I believe en- 
tirely disused, and the modern Syriac, in which books still 
continue to be printed ; if any vestige of an alphabet strictly 
Phoenician, or Canaanitish, still remains in existence, it is 
only in the Samaritan, which may be found in every grammar 
of the language, in the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, 
and in what may be called a variorum alphabet, published by 
Dutens in his Ancient Medals. The alphabets actually used 
by the Persians and Arabians are acknowledged on all hands 
to possess no claim to antiquity, and are therefore not worth 
naming ; but it is not a little remarkable that the Chaldee or 
Hebrew alphabet, the Estrangolo, or old Syriac, the modern 
Syriac, (which however is as old as the Peshito version of 
the Syriac New Testament of the first century of the Chris- 
tian era, and how much older it would be difficult to say,) 
and the Samaritan, or Phoenician Proper, all consist of twenty- 
two letters ; and it is equally remarkable that they may be 
said to be the same letters, for though they are infinitely diver- 
sified in form, they are precisely the same as to power, there- 
by attesting not merely a common origin of alphabets, but a 
primary identity of language. How did Cadmus contrive to </ 
lose six of these twenty-two letters in his short passage across 
the JEgean, and to arrive in Greece with only sixteen? 
Cadmus, as we have seen, is merely a creation of mythology, 
or rather a personification of the sun, of the east, or of Asia ; 
and the real fact is, that as the Greeks have no veracious 
history before Herodotus, so they have no genuine antiquities ; 



16 OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS 

all their pretended archaiology being comparatively modern 
inventions, created in the full blaze of their civilisation, by 
the fictions of poetry and the exaggerations of national 
vanity. I believe, notwithstanding, that there was a Cadmus, 
although not from Phoenicia. A Cadmus of Miletus is re- 
corded, who is said to have written a history of Attica in six- 
teen books. Were these sixteen books distinguished, like 
those of Homer in their present state, by so many letters of 
the Greek alphabet ? I believe they were, and that this is 
the sole historical foundation of Cadmus and his. sixteen 
letters ; but this by no means proves that there were no more 
letters to be used if they had been required, but only that 
there were no more books to be numbered. «^ 

4. The works of Pliny have suffered so much by the 
ravages of time, that there is hardly a passage in them on 
which we can place implicit confidence. This is more espe- 
cially the case with regard to the numbers. When he says, 
therefore, that the Babylonian astronomical observations 
were 720 years old, the most obvious meaning of the words 
is 720 years before his own time ; but he is much more 
likely to have had in his mind the 721 years B. c, fixed on 
by Ptolemy at a subsequent period as the date of the earliest 
recorded eclipse of the moon. Berosus is said to have lived 
and written in the age of Alexander. Lempriere fixes on 
the year B. c. 268 ; and if to this we add the 480 mentioned 
by Pliny, we shall have within a year the astronomical era of 
Nabonassar (b. c. 747), which, we know, was used by 
Ptolemy. Pere Amyot in his celebrated letter from Pekin 
says, and the coincidence with European chronology is not a 
little curious, the Chinese astronomical observations com- 
mence B. C. 722, while the era of Nabonassar, which was 
the basis of those of the Greeks, commenced B. c. 747, on the 
26 th of February. 

5. Other coincidences between China and Europe will be 
found to exist, or I am much mistaken, in subjects more 
interesting than chronological dates or astronomical obser- 
vations ; and I think it may be proved almost to demon- 
stration that that country and ancient Egypt have two 



OF LETTERS. 17 

hieroglyphics in common, proving conclusively an intimate 
intercourse between the people, if not primary identity of 
race, and that the Coptic alphabet has derived one letter, the 
Hebrew three, the Phoenician or Samaritan two, the Estran - 
golo or Old Syriac, and the common Syriac, one letter each, 
from Chinese hieroglyphics. Pere Amyot, in his Letter 
from Pekin, already mentioned, informs us that there are five 
different kinds of writing in China, of each of which he 
presents us with specimens. The most ancient is the Kou- 
ouen, which has been obsolete for centuries, probably for 
more than two thousand years, and of which very scanty 
vestiges remain in existence. He gives a specimen of it, 
Plate 5.. which may also be found in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions, vol. lix. tab. 24., and at page 84., art. " China," in 
the Sup. to the Ency. Brit. 

The second is the Tchoang-tsee which succeeded the Kou- 
ouen, and lasted until the end of the Dynasty of the Tcheou. 
This was in use during the life of Confucius who was born 
about 551 years before Christ. 

The third, or Li-tsee, commenced under the reign of Chi- 
hoang-ti, founder of the Dynasty of the Tsin, and the great 
enemy of learning and its professors. 

The fourth, or Hing-chou, according to the learned Father 
was devoted to printing, like the round and italic characters 
among ourselves. 

The fifth, or Tsao-tsee was invented under the Dynasty of 
Han, and appears not to have been extensively prevalent. 
(Lettre de Pekin, page 17. Bruxelles, 4to, 1773.) 

vi. Among these Kou-ouen, or ancient characters (Kou in 
spoken Chinese signifying antiquity), we find Ge or tlee, the 
Sun ©, and Yue, the moon (art. " China," page 84. Sup. 
Ency. Brit.) ; and on turning to Plate 74. art. "Egypt," we 
discover the hieroglyphics for Phre, the sun, to be 10. 
Phre I believe to be a compound word resolvable, in Coptic, 
into the definite article Ph, and Ro a contraction for Ouro 
(Scholtz, Gram. p. 17 — 21.), in which case the perpendicular 
line may be the representative of the article, while the O re- 
presents the sun, or the king of the host of heaven, as in the 

C 



18 OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS 

Chinese ; and as Du Halde informs us that the Chinese can- 
not express the letter R, their Ge or Jee may have been the 
nearest approximation they could make to Ro or Re, the 
name of the sun in the language of Egypt, without the 
coalescing article. In the same plate we find Ioh, the 
moon, the Chinese hieroglyphic being, a half moon and 
the name Yue ; so that both the hieroglyphics, and names 
of the sun and moon, in China and Egypt, if not perfectly 
identical, approximate so closely that there can be little 
doubt of the derivation of the one from the other. 

vn. In the plates representing the 214 Elements or Keys 
of the Chinese Language, in the Supplement to the Ency- 
clopedia Britannica, we find, 

No. 45. Che, with the signification, a bud, grass, plants. 
The name of a bud in Persic is Cheh. 

ttj Schei. The name of the twenty-fifth letter of the 
Coptic alphabet, in Scholtz's Grammar of that language. 
This is one of the eight letters which the Coptic has added 
to the common Greek. 

Shan, a hill or mountain in the Kou-ouen, or oldest 
Chinese, which is genuine picture-writing. (Ency. Brit. p. 84.) 

Shan, a hill or mountain. No. 46 of the 214 Keys, or 
common Chinese, which is demotic, or simplified picture- 
writing. 

& Shin, the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. 
The word in that language signifies a tooth, or sharp cliff, 
agreeing with the Chinese. 

& Sin, the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, 
with the position of the point altered. 

UJ Schin, the twenty-first letter of the Phoenician or 
Samaritan alphabet, from Dutens's medals. 

Yen, Chinese, the eye, seen in front — Kou-ouen. 
(Ency. Brit. p. 84.) 

If Ain, the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, being 
half an eye, or the eye seen in profile. Ain in Hebrew 
signifies the eye, as Yen does in spoken Chinese. 

Ain, the sixteenth letter of the Phoenician or Samaritan 
alphabet, from Dutens's medals. In Masclef's Samaritan 



OF LETTERS. 1 ( J 

Grammar y, but both figures are rude representations of 
half the eye. 

Ain, the sixteenth letter of the Estrangolo, or old Syriac 
— obsolete. 

^ Ain, the sixteenth letter of the common Syriac, still in 
use. 

viii. So much for the letters derived by the Coptic and 
Shemitic languages from the real character of the Chinese. 
We are informed by Du Halde, and have just seen with our 
own eyes, that the earliest attempts of the Chinese in the 
art of writing, were precisely similar to those of the Mexicans, 
and consisted simply of pictures, and that they had no other 
means of conveying to others their ideas on the subject of a 
mountain, a tree, or a bird, than by a rude delineation of 
their figure. This was the Kou-ouen ; and we learn from 
the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, that enough 
of it still remains on ancient seals, and vases for sacred pur- 
poses, to show the original state, or very nearly so, of the 
Chinese characters, and to trace the changes which have 
taken place from the picture to the present symbol. Pere 
Amyot himself is disposed to believe that even of the Kou- 
ouen many of the characters are not of a remote antiquity ; 
and adds, with the characteristic caution of his order, that he 
would not give a guarantee that any of them were as old as 
the age of Harnesses or Sesostris (page 44. note) ; and I feel 
as little disposed to take guarantees for any thing connected 
with the age of Kamesses or Sesostris, as the learned father 
was to give them, With a chronology so uncertain as that 
of China, it is very difficult to settle dates ; but one thing- 
appears to me to be absolutely certain, that the period at 
which the Kou-ouen, or picture-writing, was exchanged for 
the demotic or simplified, must have been anterior to any 
known specimens of alphabetical writing existing in Europe, 
as the oldest alphabets we are acquainted with have borrowed 
several letters from the real characters actually in use in the 
Chinese Empire. 

ix. The preceding are the only letters that I have hither- 
to succeeded in tracing directly to hieroglyphics, but there 

c 2 



20 OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS 

are many reasons which induce me to believe, that the Runic 
alphabet is Oriental, and of a very remote antiquity, or at 
any rate some of the sixteen letters of which it is composed. 
Sir William Jones, in his Discourse on the Tartars, informs 
us, on the authority of Arabshah, the author of the Life of 
Tamerlane, that in Yaghatai, the people of Oighur have a 
system of fourteen letters only, denominated from themselves 
Oighuri, and that those are the characters which the Mongols 
are supposed by most authors to have borrowed. Abul- 
ghazi tells us only, that Chingiz employed the natives of 
Eighur as excellent penmen ; but the Chinese assert that he 
was forced to employ them, because he had no writers 
at all among his natural- born subjects ; and we are assured by 
many that Kublaikhan ordered letters to be invented for 
his nation by a Tibetian, whom he rewarded with the dignity 
of chief Lama. The small number of Eighuri letters, con- 
tinues Sir William Jones, might induce us to believe that 
they were Zend, or Pahlavi, which must have been current 
in that country, when it was governed by the sons of Feri- 
dun ; and if the alphabet ascribed to the Eighurians by M. 
des Hautesrayes be correct, we may safely decide that in 
many of its letters it resembles both the Zend and the Syriac, 
with a remarkable difference in the mode of connecting them ; 
but as we can scarce hope to see a genuine specimen of them, 
our doubt must remain in regard to their form and origin : 
the page exhibited by Hyde as Khatayan writing, is evidently 
a sort of broken Cufic, and the fine manuscript at Oxford 
from which it was taken, is more probably a Mendean work 
on some religious subject, than, as he imagined, a code of 
Tartarean laws. (Sir William Jones's Works, vol. iii. p. 82.) 
x. .-In connection with this subject, Mallet, the author of 
the History of Denmark, or rather Bishop Percy, his judicious 
translator, says : What are we to think of those inscriptions in 
the Runic character, which travellers assure us they have 
seen in the deserts of Tartary ? Tartary has never yet been 
converted to Christianity : from this and the circumjacent 
countries issued those swarms which peopled Scandinavia ; 
nor have the Scandinavians ever made any expedition into 



OF LETTERS. 21 

their mother country since they embraced the Christian 
faith. ^Tf, then, the account given us by these travellers is 
true, we must necessarily conclude that the Runic writing 
was an art which had its rise in Asia, and was carried into 
Europe by the colonies who came to settle in the north. 
This is also confirmed by all the old chronicles and poems 
which I have so often quoted. They universally agree in 
assigning to the Runic characters a very remote antiquity, 
and an origin entirely Pagan. They attribute the invention 
of them to Odin himself; who, they add, was eminently 
skilled in the art of writing, as well for the common purposes 
of life as for the operations of magic. Many of these letters 
even bore the names of the gods, his companions ; and in a 
very ancient ode quoted by Bartholinus, the poet thus speaks 
of the Runic characters, "The letters which the Great Ancient 
traced out, which the gods composed, which Odin, the sovereign 
of the gods, engraved." (Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 371.) 
XI. It is quite clear to my mind that no human being of 
the name of Odin ever existed, and that the name of the 
Northern Woden is derived from the Indian Budha, by 
reading the initial letter as V or W, and adding a final N ; 
which in Sanskrit is frequently Anuswarah, a mere dot. 
Much of what is related of Odin is explicable from Indian 
sources, and made up of Indian ideas. There are said to 
have been two Odins, and we also find two Budhas in the 
Hindu mythology. The name of one of them is said to have 
been Sigge ; and Sakya, or Sacya, is one of the Hindu names 
of Budha, a very probable etymology of Saxons in the sense 
of his worshippers or followers. Odin is described as having 
one eye, and the Arimaspians mentioned by Herodotus were 
probably some of the most devoted of his adorers ; not that 
they had fewer eyes than their neighbours, but that they 
worshipped Budha, or the Sun, under the name of the Eye of 
the Universe. The Indian Budha was the son of Maia, and 
the regent of the planet Mercury ; and the Greek Mercury 
was also the son of Maia, and the inventor of letters, a bene- 
fit to mankind which we have just seen Avas also ascribed to 
the Northern Woden. 

c 3 



22 OLDEST NAMES AXD FORMS 

xn. To return, however, to the Runic letters. In the 
fourth volume of Conyers Middleton's Miscellaneous Works, 
we find the representation of a gem bearing the effigies of a 
monarch, said to be Parthian, with an inscription in characters 
which no one hitherto I believe has succeeded in decyphering. 
I will first translate what he says on the subject, and then 
make a few remarks on the legend. The third gem, says he, 
exhibits the likeness of some king of the Parthians, adorned 
with the dress and ornaments with which we usually find 
those princes engraved, as well on gems as on medals. I re- 
mark that Baudelet has already brought to light another 
gem resembling, and almost identical with ours, engraved on 
agate, with an inscription in Parthian letters, made in the 
form of a ring, which he declares to have been among the 
most valuable and beautiful he had ever seen of that descrip- 
tion. It is a well-known fact that the kings of the ancient 
Medes and Parthians were more delighted with the splendour 
of royal robes, and a minuteness of decoration, almost femi- 
nine, than any other race of monarchs. For we read that 
they were accustomed to paint the face and eye-lids, to wear 
false hair, twisted into innumerable curls, together with ear- 
rings, necklaces, and bracelets. Thus Xenophon describes 
the Mede, Astyages ; and Plutarch Surena, the Parthian 
leader, adding that the Parthians had contracted their taste 
for such ornaments from the Medes. That the effigies of the 
Parthian kings were frequently engraved on gems, and in the 
very dress which they really wore, we learn from Pliny; who, 
writing to Trajan from Bithynia, says that he had with him 
a slave who had deserted from Pacorus, king of the Parthians, 
bringing with him a gem engraved with the likeness of 
Pacorus, in the royal insignia which he commonly wore ; that 
the gem had been abstracted from the slave by force, or 
fraud ; and Pliny says, that he was making diligent inquiries 
for it, that he might transmit it to Trajan. Thus our gem, 
adds Middleton, appears to be valuable, not so much for the 
beauty of the engraving, which nevertheless might fairly 
constitute a theme for praise, as from its extreme rarity, 
when we remark that Roman proconsuls were anxious to pro- 



OF LETTERS. 23 

cure such, and regarded them as presents worthy of the 
emperor. (Works, vol. iv. p. 153, tab. 21.) 

Now, two of the letters in this legend, or inscription, 
appear to me to be Runic, and one Phoenician, or Samari- 
tan. 

"T Tyr, the letter t. (Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. 
p. 370.) 

rh Yr, power yr. (Ibid.) 

Samech — s. (Dutens's Phoenician Medals, second form of 
the letter.) 

If the letter Tyr had formed the commencement of the 
inscription, it would have been highly probable that the 
whole name was Tiridates, as there were several kings of that 
name. But it does not do so, being preceded by two other 
characters, one of which is partially obliterated, and the 
other of them I cannot decypher ; and until the whole inscrip- 
tion is made out, we cannot be certain as to the power of the 
letters, and the above must be regarded as merely conjectural, 
and I offer it as such. It is remarkable, however, that Parthia 
has an historical, or at any rate traditional, connection with 
Scythia. Justin commences the 41st book of his History by 
saying: "The Parthians, in whose hands the empire of the East 
is at present placed, as if they had divided the globe with the 
Romans, were originally Scythian exiles, as indeed is proved 
by their name, for, in the language of Scythia, Parthi is 
equivalent to exiles." Whatever may be thought of the His- 
tory, I feel strongly disposed to contest the etymology of 
this passage, believing the name of the Parthians to be essen- 
tially the same as that of the Persians, the latter being the 
Hebrew word Pharash, a horseman, and the former the 
Chaldee form of the same word, changing sh into th, accord- 
ing to the general rule ; and it is clear from history, that both 
were originally Nomades, and nations of cavalry, and indeed 
the Parthians were hardly ever anything else. My own 
opinion is, as I have explained at greater length in another 
work, that the earliest seats of civilization must be sought for in 
the southern countries of Asia, China, Hindostan, Persia, and 
Assyria; whence the original inhabitants were constrained to 

C 4 



24 OLDEST NAMES AND FORMS 

emigrate, in a northerly direction, by the pressure of popula- 
tion against the means of subsistence, the great instrument in 
covering the face of the earth with inhabitants. The emi- 
grants, no doubt, carried with them whatever arts and sciences 
they had acquired ; and if we could find indubitable proof of 
the existence of the Runic letters in Persia, or Parthia, it 
would hardly be possible to doubt that they were carried 
into the north of Europe in the course of those emigrations 
which are ascribed to Odin. 

xiii. There is another strong presumption of the Asiatic 
origin of the Runic alphabet, as the names of two of its 
letters are Persic words ; I do not mean conjectural words, 
such as etymologists are so much in the habit of dealing with, 
and which they are often accused of manufacturing, but 
words which are to be found in every dictionary of the lan- 
guage. 

In the Runic alphabet we find 

'f- Tyr, the name of the letter t. But Tir in Persic sig- 
nifies an arrow, and we have only to look at the Runic 
form of the letter, to be convinced that it forms a con- 
necting link between hieroglyphics and alphabets, and 
that it is one of the very oldest among the elements of 
the latter. In the northern mythology we also find a 
god Tyr, about whom their authors can relate little, 
except that he was a military deity ; and as Tir in Persic 
is the name of the planet Mercury, as well as of an 
arrow, Tyr was probably another name of Odin or 
Woden himself. V 
E£ Biarkan, the name of the letter b. Barkhanah in Persic 
signifies a tent, and it is quite clear that two are re- 
presented, so that it is at once an hieroglyphic and a 
letter. It may perhaps be analysed into Bar, son, and 
Khanah, house, a tent being a small house. The Runic 
is the oldest form of the Greek Beta in Dutens's medals, 
and also in a modern work of high authority, Inscrip- 
tiones Grrecae Yetustissimse, by H. I. Rose, M.A. 
It is remarkable that in many of the Shemitic lan- 
guages, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac and Samaritan, the 



OF LETTERS. 25 

name of the second letter is Beth, whence the Greeks 
derived their Beta ; and almost all who have paid any 
attention to these languages must have remarked, that in 
none of them does the form of the letter bear the least 
resemblance to a house, which the word Beth signifies. 
In the Runic only the form agrees with the name, and 
carries us back to hieroglyphics, the precursors of 
letters, and to a tent which is the house of a Nomadic 
people in the very infancy of civil society. 



26 



CHAP. III. 

ON DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN 
PRODUCED BY DIFFERENT MODES OF WRITING, THAT IS, FROM 
RIGHT TO LEFT, OR FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. 

I. At the first view of the subject, and before we have had 
time to collect the results of experience by the aid of memory, 
and deduce logical conclusions from them by the exercise of 
the reasoning faculty, the art of alphabetical writing appears 
to be calculated to fix the sounds of language beyond the 
possibility of mutation or accident ; and yet on a close and 
attentive examination, we shall find reason to believe that 
the most rude and unwritten languages have experienced 
fewest and least changes, and the most polished and early 
written, the most numerous and greatest ; in short, that refine- 
ment in language is almost another word for revolution. 
Almost all must have remarked the changes produced in lan- 
guage by the dropping of superfluous letters, by dismissing 
clusters of consonants, by the elision of vowels, and by the 
rejection of aspirates, initial and medial ; in some instances, 
to assist the hand in writing, to keep pace with the speed of 
thought, and, in others, to gratify the ear by the charms of 
harmony, and add new attractions to the declamation of the 
orator, and the song of the poet. Instances of this sort are 
familiar to the minds of most well educated men ; but perhaps 
it has occurred to few, and even when pointed out, will not 
be readily believed, that large classes of words have had their 
origin in, and been created by the art of alphabetical writing 
itself ; and that if that art had never been invented, the proba- 
bility is, that many words which we now find in the diction- 
aries of the oldest written languages would never have existed. 



DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE. 27 

II. There are three leading modes or divisions in the art of 
writing, whether in hieroglyphics or letters ; in a real cha- 
racter the sign of things, or a vocal character the sign of 
sounds. The Chinese, who, as my readers are well aware, 
use a real character, write from the top of the page to the 
bottom, in which they are followed by the Ceylonese, and 
many other Oriental nations who use an alphabetical cha- 
racter. The great family of the Shemitic, or Arabic class of 
languages, the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the Syriac, the Samari- 
tan, and of course the Arabic itself, have from time imme- 
morial been written from right to left ; while, on the other 
hand, the Sanskrit, or Indian class of languages, compre- 
hending the Sarmatian, or great Slavonic family, together 
with all the languages of modern Europe, are now written 
from left to right. But this was not always the case, for a 
few of the oldest Greek inscriptions, denominated Boustro- 
phedon, from their supposed resemblance to the action of an 
ox ploughing, are written in lines running from left to right, 
and from right to left alternately. This mode of writing 
may be regarded as a connecting link between the two great 
families of languages, of which the Arabic and the Sanskrit 
may be regarded as the keys ; but there are grounds for sus- 
pecting that, at a still earlier period, the Greeks wrote entirely 
from right to left like the Phoenicians, as by far the larger 
part of the inscriptions denominated Etruscan, but which are 
really little more than the remains of the Greeks settled in 
Italy, are written in that manner. 

in. I shall begin with the names of some of the gods, 
commencing with the Chinese, as there are strong grounds for 
believing that their monosyllabic language, if not the oldest, 
is at any rate among the oldest spoken by mankind. In that 
language we find the word Tien, heaven, which is personified 
as a god, and appears to correspond as nearly as possible with 
the Ouranos of the Greeks, and the Ccelus of the Romans. 
If we reverse Tien, or read it from right to left, we have 
Neit ; and if we repair to Sais in ancient Egypt, we find the 
temple of Neitha with the following inscription, as given in 
Enfield's History of Philosophy : " I am whatever is, or has 



28 DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE 

been, or will be, and no mortal has hitherto drawn aside iny 
veil; my offspring is the Sun." Neitha was certainly either 
Heaven personified, like the Chinese Tien, or Eternity, or at 
different periods both. Greek tradition brings Cecrops and a 
colony of Saites to Athens, and if we reverse Neitha again, 
drop the i, and add a final Eta to the word, we shall have 
the name of their tutelary goddess Athene ; and the elder 
Minerva, or Metis, has much in common with Urania. In 
other words, the Greek Athene is etymologically the Chinese 
Tien, with a prefix and affix; while, mythologically, the 
Chinese worship a goddess, to whom they give the name of 
Tien-Heou, or Queen of Heaven. 

iv. Again, if we take the Chinese word Tien, heaven, and 
recollect that d is a letter of the same organ with the initial 
t, we have Dien. In Sanskrit we find Tihan, a bow, and 
shall perhaps see reason to believe that the oldest Grecian 
Dihan or Diana, was the concavity or expanse of heaven 
personified. Diana, the goddess of hunting, is clearly the 
mere creation of poetry of a comj)aratively modern age. If 
we reverse Dihan, write Nahid, and open a Persic dictionary 
at the word, we shall find that it signifies the planet Venus, 
and a girl with a swelling bosom. If we prefix a to Nahid, 
and change the final d into Tis, we shall have Anaitis, which 
Strabo will inform us was a name of Venus in Armenia, and 
Pausanias of Diana in Lydia ; while Pliny doubts if the 
worship offered by the Armenians was directed to Venus or 
Diana. Again, if we will take the trouble to open a Persic 
dictionary at the word Nib ad, or Nahid transposed, we shall 
perceive that it signifies nature ; and we discover in the Greek 
mythology ample reasons for believing that some of the 
goddesses, worshipped under the name of Diana, were merely 
so many personifications or abstract ideas of nature, as our 
common mother. The Arabic name of nature is Tabiat ; 
and Herodotus informs us, that the name of Vesta, or the 
Bona Dea among the Scythians, was Tabiti, which is doubtless 
the same word. Many of the Scythian words mentioned by 
Herodotus are unquestionably Arabic and Persic, having 
been carried into that bleak region by emigrants from the 



PRODUCED BY MODES OF WRITING. 29 

countries of Southern Asia, impelled by the operation of the 
principle of population. 

v. Again, we learn from Herodotus, that Mitra was the 
name of Venus anions' the ancient Persians. Written with 
the aspirate Theta, Mithras, or Mithres, it was undoubtedly 
a name of the sun, their principal god. The same author 
informs us, that the name of Venus among the Scy- 
thians was Artimpasa. Artim is certainly Mitra reversed, 
and Pasa may be the Sanskrit word Bhas, shine ; and the 
name will apply either to the planet Venus, or the moon. 
The Egyptian Isis was the moon, the Syrian Ashteroth or 
Astarte was the moon, or the queen of heaven ; and Cicero 
says that Astarte was the name of Venus in Assyria. Some 
authors inform us, that Mithras or Mithres was the name of 
the sun among the Persians, and Mithra of the moon. Be 
that as it may, the Greeks formed their Artemis by reversing 
Mitra, and indeed appear to have borrowed both the word 
and the worship from the Scythians. The Tauric Diana 
was the tutelary goddess of Sparta, and Artemis reversed and 
transposed produces something like Misitra, the modern 
name of the city, but which is probably really as old as 
Sparta itself. 

vi. If we open Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary at the word 
Rama, we shall perceive that one of its meanings is the deity 
of love, Kama ; and if we reverse the word, or write it from 
right to left, we shall have Amar, and by changing the a into 
o, Amor, love, or the god of love ; but as the verb, which is 
unquestionably cognate, is written Amare, it may be fairly 
doubted if Amar is not an older reading than Amor. Again we 
find the Sanskrit word Dipaka, with the signification of kind- 
ling or inflaming, as another of the names of Kama, or love. Sir 
William Jones says the word is frequently written incorrectly 
Dipuc, and, reversing that form of it, we have the Latin 
Cupid, letter for letter, and the adjective cupidus. We have 
just seen that Rama in Sanskrit signifies love, and in Arabic 
the radical letters Rhm, pronounced Rahm, signify the womb, 
matrix, compassion, mercy, which, reversed Mhr, in Persic 
signifies love and the sun. There can be little doubt that 



30 DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE. 

the Linga in Hindostan, and the Phallus in Egypt and 
Greece, were sacred to the sun, as a type of his gernrinative 
or creative power. The radical letters Bhm also signify to 
love, in Hebrew and Syriac. 

vii. Sometimes the same word is written from right to 
left, and from left to right in the same language ; that is, in 
languages which differ so little from each other, as the 
Hebrew and the Chaldee, and which are written in pre- 
cisely the same character. In Hebrew, Laib, the heart, 
radical letters Lb; and in Chaldee, Bal, the heart, radical 
letters Bl. We are not so much surprised at finding the 
word heart expressed in Arabic, both by Lubb and Bal, as 
the latter word came from the Persic ; which, though written 
like the Arabic, from right to left, since the period of the 
Mahometan conquest of Persia, was probably at an earlier 
period written like the Sanskrit, with which it has so much 
more in common. The radical letters Lb, with some modi- 
fications, appear to signify the heart in all the Shemitic 
languages, Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Ethiopic, 
and to have passed into the Gothic languages in the word 
love, of which the heart is the supposed seat; while the 
Persic Bal appears to supply the etymology of the Greek 
Boule, the will, and Boulomai, I will. The Persic word 
Dil, the heart, formed the Latin Diligo, I love, and its 
compounds. 

viii. The Persic word for head is Sar, which reverssd 
becomes Ras in Arabic, Bosh in Hebrew, Baish in Chaldee, 
Bash in Samaritan, and By as in Ethiopic. In Arabic, we 
find the word Kid in the sense of rule, regulation, article of 
agreement, obligation, which reversed, with the addition of 
final Eta, becomes in Greek Dike, justice. In Coptic, we 
find Chlom, a crown, which, reversed, becomes in Hebrew 
Moloch, a king, or he who wears a crown. 



3L 



CHAP. IV. 

ON DIVERSITIES OF LANGUAGE WHICH APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN 
PRODUCED BY THE SUBSTITUTION OF ONE LETTER FOR ANOTHER. 
— ORIGIN OF DIALECTS. 

I. One of the best modern grammars (Noebden's) of the 
German language gives a synopsis of the letters which are 
most alike, and most liable to be mistaken for each other, 
and it is much to be wished that other works of a similar 
nature had done the same. Up to this time it does not 
appear to have occurred to philologists, or at any rate I have 
not seen it remarked and applied to any practical purpose, 
that letters which are liable to be confounded now, must 
have been liable to be confounded always ; that letters liable 
to be mistaken for each other, must actually have been 
mistaken ; and that where they are frequently mistaken, an 
erroneous reading becomes permanent, and a dialect is 
formed. Noehden begins by remarking that B and V, in 
German, are two of the characters most liable to be mistaken 
for each other ; and it is deserving of notice that the same is 
the case in Sanskrit, which perhaps has a stronger claim 
than any other single language to be regarded as the mother, 
not merely of the Greek and Latin, but of most of the 
languages of modern Europe ; while in many of the Shemitic 
languages, Beth, the second letter of the alphabet, has also 
the power of V, and as the Roman F was derived from the 
Phoenician Vau, we find B, V, and F, discharging the 
office of initial aspirates, more frequently than any other 
consonants in the Greek and Latin, the latter character 
being the celebrated Eolic Digamma, about which so much 
has been written, and so little understood. 

ii. From the confident tone with which philologists, in 
their etymological speculations, pronounce on the power and 



32 SUBSTITUTION OF ONE 

changes of letters, one would fancy that the present order of 
things had existed for ever, and that the oldest books extant 
had been stereotyped as soon as written, and duly entered at 
Stationers' Hall ; and yet it is matter of notoriety, that 
alphabets were not produced, like Minerva, from the head of 
Jove, at once mature and perfect, but were the slow growth 
of centuries ; and that even after the number and power of 
the letters had been settled, their form continued to vary so 
essentially, that inscriptions, two or three centuries old, 
became nearly unintelligible. According to Greek tradition, 
on which however, as I have already remarked, little or no 
reliance is to be placed, alphabetical characters were invented 
in Egypt by Memnon, B. C. 1822, and brought into Greece 
by Cadmus, B. c. 1493 ; and yet we are quite certain that 
the Greek alphabet was not finally settled until the archon- 
ship of Euclid at Athens, during the Peloponnesian war, 
when in all probability it assumed very nearly the form in 
which it is at present known to us. Let any one attempt to 
deduce the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet, from 
the twenty-two of the Phoenician or Samaritan, and next the 
Roman letters from the oldest forms of the Greek, and he 
will have some idea how many unrecorded attempts must have 
been made, and how numerous the failures that must have 
occurred ; how difficult it was to dismiss the old characters, 
after all were sensible of their inconvenience, or to introduce 
the new after all became convinced of their superiority, so 
powerful is the influence of habit, and so weak that of reason, 
on human affairs ; and we shall easily conceive that the old 
letters refused to be laid, and continued to rise, like the ghost 
of Banquo, iS with twenty mortal murders on their head," 
while the new, like the spirits of Glendower, refused to come 
" when they did call for them." Philologists, acquiescing in 
Greek tradition, have rarely pursued their researches beyond 
the Greek alphabet itself; while the real fact is, that the 
single work of Lanzi, his Saggio di Etrusca, contains such 
a variety of characters, that it has the appearance of being a 
grand congress of letters, to which all the ancient alphabets 
of Asia have sent two or three representatives, Sanskrit, 



LETTER FOR ANOTHER. 33 

Phoenician, Syriac, Hebrew and Coptic. In the present 
Chapter I shall show, that, in many instances, precisely the 
same forms had at different periods very different powers, 
before the old became finally obsolete and the new were 
completely established. 

in. Hebrew Daleth, 1 (D), and Kaish, i (E), confounded. 

In the 10th, or genealogical chapter of Genesis, at the 
4th, verse, we read, " And the sons of Javan ; Elishah, and 
Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim." Instead of Dodanim, an 
edition of the Septuagint before me, printed at Glasgow, in 
1822, and which professes to be founded on the celebrated 
Vatican MS., reads Rodioi, Rhodians , — clearly by mis- 
taking the Hebrew Daleth for a Raish. By mistaking the 
second D of Dodanim in the same way, they would have 
formed something very like Dorians, Doranim. Elishah is 
very like Ellas, the common name of Greece, while Dodanim 
reminds us of Dodona. (Vide Gibbs's Gesenius in voc. 
Alishah and Dodanim.) 

iv. Hebrew Samech, D (S), and final Mem, D (M), con- 
founded. 

In 2 Kings, xix. 37., we read, i( And it came to pass, as he 
(Sennacherib) was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his 
god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him 
with the sword." The word Nisroch occurs but this once in 
the Old Testament, and is unintelligible from a double cor- 
ruption. It consists of two distinct Persic words, Nim, half, 
and Roz, day, or the meridian, and by omitting the diacritical 
point in the final letter of Roz it becomes Rod, and we have 
Nimrod, the sun. 

v. Hebrew final Caph, "j (Ch), and Daleth, 1 (D), con- 
founded. 

This forms the second syllable of Nisroch, the true read- 
ing of which should be Nimrod. In Richardson's Persic 
Dictionary, we meet with the phrase Sultani Nimroz, Sultan 
of the Meridian, as an epithet of the sun ; and by turning 
to the sixth volume of Sir William Jones's Works, which 
contains his Commentary on Asiatic Poetry, at pages 113. 

D 



34 SUBSTITUTION OF ONE 

and 114., we shall perceive that Nimroz is actually written 
Nimrod, both in the Persic and the Latin translation, " Nunc 
cum tulipa ardet igne Nimrodi," where by Nimrod we must 
necessarily understand the sun. 

VI. Arabic Rej (R), and ZeJ (Z), confounded. 

In Genesis, at chapter xxv. verses IV, 18. we read, " And 
these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty 
and seven years : and he gave up the ghost and died ; and 
was gathered unto his people. And they dwelt from 
Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest 
towards Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his 
brethren." It is quite certain that there is but one way of 
going from Egypt to Assyria by land, and that is by the 
Isthmus of Suez ; and if we suppose the word Shur to have 
been inserted in the Hebrew text from an Arabic MS., 
where it was written Shuz, we shall be very near the pre- 
sent name Suez. There is less difficulty in this, than in 
supposing Prat and Hiddekel, the modern Arabic names of 
the Euphrates and Tigris, to have been known in Paradise. 
The passage quoted from Genesis, xxv. 18., renders it highly 
probable that Havilah was the name of the north of Arabia, 
from the Isthmus of Suez to the river which is called Pison, 
Genesis, ii. ] 1., and which probably designated one of the 
branches of the Frat or Euphrates. Havilah appears to be 
cognate with Hivites, and both words with Havvoth, tents, 
(vide Gibbs's Gesenius in voce), Hvi, Hebrew, a tent, and 
Hiat, Arabic, life, Hivites, shepherds, or men dwelling in tents. 
Hvi, Hebrew, a tent, and Layah, Sanskrit, place ; Havilah, 
place of tents, or land of shepherds ; the etymology of Palestine 
itself being Pali, shepherd, and Istan, place, both Sanskrit. 

vn. Sanskrit ^f (S), and Roman R (R). 

In the third book of his History, Livy says, " The next 
consuls were Aulus Postumius Albus, and Spurius Furius 
Fusus (a.u. 290, B.C. 462). Some have written the Furii, 
Fusii ; and I mention this circumstance lest any one should 
fancy that there was a difference in the persons when it 
existed only in the name." As s and r, to use the language 



LETTER FOR ANOTHER. 35 

of grammarians, are not letters of the same organ, but, on the 
contrary, as distinct in sound as any two in the alphabet, 
there must of necessity have existed some cause of a very 
peculiar nature, to produce and account for the confusion of 
these letters. If the mistake had been limited to a single 
proper name, like that of the Furian or Fusian family, the 
circumstance would not have been worth investigating ; but 
this is so far from having been the case, that we find a large 
class of words enumerated by the writers on Roman 
antiquities, distinguished by the same ambiguity. Varro, in 
the sixth book of his work De Lingua Latina, says : " In 
multis verbis in quo antiqui dicebant s, postea dicunt r, ut in 
carmine Saliorum sunt haec : cosauli (chorauli), dolosi (dolori), 
eso (ero), post melios (melior), foedesum (foederum), plusima 
(plurima), asena (arena), janitos (janitor)." (Lanzi, Saggio, 
torn. i. p. 126.) I would begin by remarking that in attempt- 
ing to throw light on the archaisms of any language, it does 
not appear to have occurred to antiquarians, that the first 
step should be to recur to the most ancient alphabet of that 
language, and endeavour to ascertain its gradual formation 
and successive changes. They appear to have regarded alpha- 
bets as something as fixed and permanent as language itself, 
as if they were altogether the work of nature, and not, on the 
contrary, the contrivance of art, in some cases more, and in 
others less, perfect ; and yet almost all scholars must be aware 
of the common tradition, that the Greek alphabet consisted 
primarily of only sixteen letters, and that the oldest Roman 
alphabet was as narroAV. A cursory inspection will convince 
us, not merely that many of the most ancient characters have 
entirely disappeared, without leaving a trace of themselves 
in the alphabet as finally settled (a circumstance which would 
merely incapacitate us for reading the ancient inscriptions, in 
which those characters occur), but, what is found to be a 
source of incomparably greater confusion and difficulty, that 
precisely the same form has, at different periods, been appro- 
priated to different letters, so that the power being changed, 
while the appearance remained the same, the nicest scrutiny 
of the eye produced no other effect than that of misleading 

B 2 



36 SUBSTITUTION OF ONE 

the ear. Among the characters which have entirely disap- 
peared from the Greek and Roman alphabets, are two Sans- 
krit S's, one of which is also Phoenician, and respecting each 
of them I shall have a few words to say. I must commence, 
however, with giving the forms accurately. 

S[T Sanskrit letter Sa, from Wilkins' Grammar. 
2 Phoenician Samech, from Dutens' Medals. Third form in 
the alphabet given by him. 

The reader will remark, that the square frame work is no 
essential part of the Sanskrit letter, and that in both instances 
the genuine character is the European figure of 2, for which 
we are said to be indebted to the Arabians. I now proceed 
to give two exemplifications of its occurrence in Lanzi — 

I3M!2 3^ Tomo ii. p. 370., inscrip. 113. 

The letters are an Etruscan Chi, or Roman Q, intended as 
an abbreviation for Quintia ; then follows the name at length, 
Vesinei; a Hebrew Beth, with the power of v, a Greek 
Epsilon, a Sanskrit or Phoenician s, and the other characters 
too plain to be mistaken — 

2 M AVq Tomo ii. p. 389., inscrip. 181. 

Ruapis, with the Sanskrit or Phoenician s, occurring as a 
final : here there is not the smallest doubt about the Etruscan 
letters, as we find them in common Roman characters beneath. 

Having given the other Sanskrit s at the commencement 
of this paragraph or section, I have only to exemplify its 
use by Lanzi. He, of course, reads and prints it like a 
Roman capital R, though he is perfectly aware that the 
w T ords require an s. I, on the contrary, give the w r ords as 
I suppose them to have been originally written. 

Tianus ") , ... „ Ar . . . in 
„, J- torn. in. p. 600., inscrip. 10. 

Teanus J 

Akurunnias, torn. hi. p. 604., inscrip. 26. 

The oldest form of the Greek Rho was <, and the next 
with the perpendicular stroke a little lengthened, and the 
oldest existing instance, according to Dutens, of the lower 



LETTER FOR ANOTHER. 37 

stroke being added, which converted it into a Roman R, 
is in the Nointel inscription, B.C. 450; and until about that 
period there was, probably, no ambiguity between S, and R ; 
but from that time the mistakes became so frequent, as to 
occasion this form of S, 3^", to be entirely discontinued at the 
final settlement of the Roman alphabet. Being discontinued, 
it was, as a matter of course, completely forgotten ; and when- 
ever it occurred in inscriptions of great antiquity, like the 
above three, it was read as a capital R, the only letter in the 
settled Roman alphabet to which it bore the least resem- 
blance, as has been done by Lanzi. 

viii. Among the most celebrated of all the Roman in- 
scriptions, is that of the Duillian column, erected to per- 
petuate the memory of the first naval victory of the Romans, 
obtained by the Consul Duillius over the Carthaginians, in 
the year of Rome 494. The original column, however, has 
not come down to us, that in existence being supposed by 
Lanzi not to be older than the reign of the Emperor 
Claudius. Indeed, a circumstance is mentioned in Brotier's 
supplement to Tacitus, which, if well founded, must induce 
us to regard the whole body of Roman inscriptions with 
extreme suspicion, and, at any rate, teach us a lesson of 
caution. He says, " The records of the old republic, and all 
the valuable monuments of antiquity, had perished in the 
flames of the capitol, not less than three thousand brazen 
tablets, on which were engraved the decrees of the senate 
and the acts of the people, were destroyed in that dreadful 
conflagration. To repair the loss as well as might be, 
Vespasian ordered diligent search to be made in every 
quarter, for the copies that were known to exist ; and, after 
due examination, he deposited the same in the public archives. 
He rebuilt the capitol ; promoted arts and sciences ; en- 
couraged men of genius ; and, though his avarice in many 
instances was little short of rapacity, he spared no expense 
to restore the buildings which had been destroyed by Nero's 
fire, and in general to improve and adorn the city." (Valpy's 
Classical Library, vol. xv. p. 64.) Be that as it may, I have 

d 3 y/ 



38 SUBSTITUTION OF ONE 

little hesitation in expressing my opinion that the inscription 
which has come to us, contains various readings, which 
never were, are now, nor ever will be, Latin, in spite 
of all the efforts of the most accomplished scholars to ex- 
plain them ; and I adduce them as another instance of the 
anomalies arising out of the use of the equivocal characters R 
and S, in the early Roman alphabet, and which may be 
accounted for from that circumstance. In the early part of 
that inscription as given by Lanzi, we read Lecioneis, 
Maximosque, Macistratos, Casteris, so that there can be no 
doubt that the plural number was formed by the addition of 
S, in the usual manner ; while in the latter part we read 
Praesented, Maxumod, Dictatored, Olorum In Altod Marid 
Pugnandod. Both readings cannot by any possibility be 
genuine. Which is the true one ? I believe the Sanskrit S 
Was written in the original inscription <Ef. This, in the 
course of time, was entirely laid aside, as being inconveniently 
(like the Roman capital R, as originally) written from right to 
left JFI. The S was forgotten, and in the age of Claudius, 
when the inscription was renewed, being desirous to retain 
some portion of its archaism, they wrote the ancient Greek, 
or Etruscan Cj (R), instead of the Sanskrit S, which they 
read as R. In deciphering any very ancient inscription, the 
great point for consideration is, not what the characters 
actually signify to us, the readers, but what they did signify, 
at the period they were written, to the persons who wrote 
them. I cannot believe for a moment, that Latin plurals 
ever terminated in Delta, the fourth letter of the Greek 
alphabet ; and could as easily credit the existence of Arimaspii 
or Blemmyes, Centaurs or Cynocephali. 

ix. The substitution of R for S is said to be a Doricism, 
and one of the leading peculiarities of the Doric dialect ; and 
few facts appear to be better established, or supported by 
more numerous instances. I venture to suppose, however, 
that this peculiarity is not older than the art of alphabetical 
writing ; and the direct consequence of the existence of two 
ambiguous characters, of which we find many instances in 



LETTER FOR ANOTHER. 39 

Italy, and which in Greece was preserved in a permanent 
dialect. If we receive the common account, that the use of 
alphabetical characters was brought into fhe former from the 
latter country, there is no violation of probability in supposing 
that this character ^f, Sanskrit S, existed in Greece as well 
as in Italy. The oldest form of the Roman R, however, H 9 
which is so much like it, is found in the Nointel, or Baudelet 
inscription, brought from Athens by the Marquis de Nointel, 
and which Dutens supposes to be as old as the year B. c. 450. 
Lanzi says, that in the Latin tables of Gubbio we meet with 
many words terminating in R, which in the older Etruscan 
inscriptions terminate in S. (Tom. i. p. 258.) All these 
instances are clearly so many misreadings of a letter, and not 
to be regarded as changes of dialect. Eustathius calls this 
substitution of R for S an -ZEolicism, It is more commonly 
regarded as a Doricism ; at any rate, one of the most remark- 
able exemplifications of it on record, is the celebrated decree 
of the Spartans against Timotheus the Milesian. It was 
first quoted in the History of Music by Boethius, who wrote 
in the sixth century ; and though full of errors of all sorts, in 
a more especial manner substitutes R for S, in a degree 
which it is impossible to account for, except by supposing 
misreadings of an ancient and obsolete Greek character. It 
is published in the Memoires de l'Academie Royale des In- 
scriptions et Belles Lettres, in a paper by Monsieur de la 
Nauze, " Sur l'etat des Sciences chez les Lacedemoniens," 
in Maittaire, De Dialectis Graecis, and in the appendix to 
Rose's Inscriptiones Grtecge Vetustissimse. Monsieur de la 
Nauze very truly describes it as " plus que Dorien," and 
Toup still more justly, as " corrupto corruptius." 

x. Alpha (a), and 4 Rho (r), from the Amyclean In- 
scription. 

Strabo, describing Eretria in the island of Euboea, says, 
we ought, without doubt, to ascribe to a colony of Eleans, in 
their city, the custom they have contracted, and for which 
they are ridiculed in the Comedy, of placing an R not only at 
the end but also in the middle of words (Liber 10). R 

D 4 



40 SUBSTITUTION OP ONE 

placed in the middle of a word could be considered only as 
redundant ; and Strabo appears to have regarded the Doric 
final R in the same" light. This, in some measure, illustrates 
the singular Spartan decree respecting Timotheus the Mi- 
lesian, noticed in the preceding paragraph ; and I will en- 
deavour to illustrate it still farther by an example from the 
Persic. In that language Ner signifies male, masculine, 
membrum virile, and, with Alpha prefixed, appears to supply 
the etymology of the Greek word Aner. The poetical form 
of the word in the Accusative Case is Anera, and the Accu- 
sative, and indeed all the oblique Cases, are formed in Persic 
by adding the particle Ra to the Nominative, or Root. May 
not the Doric final R, redundant in many instances, be ac- 
counted for by this Persic particle ? But, whoever will look 
attentively at the forms of Alpha and Rho from the oldest 
inscriptions, and recollect that in Boustrophedon writing both 
letters are reversed every line, will perhaps come to the con- 
clusion that I have done, that the pretended Rho was in 
many instances an obsolete Alpha, and, instead of being an 
aspirate, or redundant, was really the Doric characteristic 
letter. 

xi. A, Delta (D), and A, Lambda (L), 
SS, the Greek Letter Xi, and the Roman X. 
Lanzi, on the authority of Marius, says, that D and L 
were interchangeable among the ancients, as in the words 
Dinguam and Linguam, the tongue, Capitodium and 
Capitolium, the capitol ; also on that of Festus, that 
they said Sedda for Sella, a saddle, and Impelimenta 
for Impedimenta, obstacles. (Tom. i. p. 126.) No one can 
look at the Greek letters, which were also the early Roman, 
without perceiving how liable they were to be mistaken for 
each other, or misread ; and if this is true of printing, it must 
have been still more the case in writing, where the characters 
are not so accurately formed. A stroke added at the bottom 
of Lambda converts it into Delta, and a stroke taken from 
the lower part of Delta converts it into Lambda. Hence, 
they must frequently have been mistaken for each other 



LETTER FOR ANOTHER. 41 

in time-worn inscriptions and faded manuscripts, though 
the sounds of L and D are as perfectly distinct as those 
of any two letters in the alphabet. Omicron and Upsilon 
appear to have been confounded by the ancient Greeks 
and Romans ; and they may very well have been so, 
as the former was the Syriac Yau, which, if its power cor- 
responded with the Hebrew letter of the same name, is 
sometimes a long vowel, sometimes a short one, and some- 
times a consonant. We have seen that D and L were inter- 
changeable ; the Roman X was originally two Sigmas placed 
back to back, or Kappa and Sigma, and sounds so different 
to the ear as Odusse, the Greek name of Ulysses, or Ulysse, 
or Uluxe, his Latin one, may have been read from precisely 
the same characters. We are sure that the Greek letter Xi 
is merely a contraction for KS, or Kappa and Sigma, as 
those letters actually supply its place both in the Amyclean 
and Nanian inscriptions. We are also sure that the Roman 
X was not only the same letter, but the oldest form of it, 
and the Etruscan inscriptions enable us to account for its 
origin and formation. 

> . Kappa in voce Akile (Achilles), Lanzi, torn. i. p. 247. 

3. Kappa in voce Hercle (Hercules) — — 244. 

3. Sigma in voce Seisna, — — 302. 

The Port-Royal Greek Grammar resolves Xi into Ks, and 
says, further, that the iEolians transposed them, and in this 
way their mythological Xuthus becomes Skuthus, a Scythian, 
indicating from what quarter the Pelasgi, or earliest in- 
habitants of Greece, came. We clearly recognise Ks as a 
final in the Latin Luks, or Lux, light, and as an initial in 
the words Xenophon and Xenophanes, or Ksenophon and 
Ksenophanes ; in Italian, dropping the Kappa, Senofane, and 
Senofonte, where it is worth remarking that the Greek Phi 
was derived from the Ethiopic Yau, and the Roman F, or 
Digamma, from the Phoenician or Samaritan Yau. 

xii. I, Iota (I), and J, Lambda (L). 

Lanzi says that Lambda, in Etruscan, is changed into a 
vowel ; but whoever will look at the letters, will, I think, be 



42 SUBSTITUTION OF ONE LETTEE FOR ANOTHER. 

disposed to admit, that the change in many cases was acci- 
dental, from the disappearance of the lower stroke of the 
Lambda, or simply from its being made too short. Where- 
ever we find two letters very liable to be mistaken for each 
other, as in the case of the Etruscan Iota and Lambda, we 
are sure that they will be mistaken, and when they have 
been mistaken very frequently, a dialect is formed. Many 
Latin words might be enumerated, which in Italian change 
their L into I, as Flores, Fiore ; Flamma, Fiamma ; Flatus, 
Fiato ; Flavus, yellow, Fiavo, a honeycomb, from its yellow 
colour. 

xin. Greek Phi® (ph); Greek Chi ® (Ch). 

Lanzi reads this character as Phi, in the word Amphiare 
(torn. i. p. 216.), and as Chi, in the word Achtu (torn. i. 
p. 399.) ; and we have the authority of a goddess for believing 
that this confusion was of very ancient date. In the fifth 
book of his Fasti, Ovid introduces Flora, saying — 

" Chloris erani, quae Flora vocor, corrupta Latino 
Noniinis est nostri littera Grseca sono." 

The "Graeca littera," however, may have continued to be 
precisely the same after it was " corrupta Latino sono," 
which is the account the goddess gives of it. 



43 



CHAP. V. 

ON THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE OP CHINA. 

" Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can 
And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne, 
To Pekin of Sinaean kings, and thence 
To Agra and Lahore of great Mogul, 
Down to the golden Chersonese ; or where 
The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since 
In Hispahan." Paradise Lost, book xi. 

I. So much has been written about the Chinese and their 
language, with a view to prove that the former are altogether 
a peculiar people, and that the latter has nothing in common 
with any other known tongue, that if the philologist be- 
lieved all that has been said on the subject, he would be dis- 
posed to class it with those profound mysteries, which, as no 
one can hope to illustrate, all must abandon in despair. " It 
is, perhaps, impossible," says the Supplement to the Ency- 
clopedia Britannica, " for the Chinese themselves to determine 
what portion of their present mixed religion and super- 
stitions belong to their ancient institutions, and what has 
been borrowed from other people. This, however, is not the 
case with their language ; their speech, and the character in 
which it is written, have maintained their primitive purity, 
and may be considered as exclusively their own. This lan- 
guage, more than any thing besides, stamps them as an 
original people ; it has no resemblance whatever to any other 
language, living or dead, ancient or modern ; it has neither 
borrowed nor lent, any thing to any other nation or people 
now in existence, excepting to those who are unquestionably 
of Chinese origin. The written character is just as distinct 
now from any alphabetical arrangement as it was some 
thousands of years ago ; and the spoken language has not 
proceeded a single step beyond the original meagre and in- 
flexible monosyllable." (Article China, p. 83.) 



44 THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE 

ir. Dr. Marshman, whose name is well known for his pro* 
found attainments in Chinese learning, has taken a great 
deal of pains to institute a formal and elaborate comparison 
between the language of that country and several others. 
He took the Raniayana, which is supposed to be the most 
ancient poetry in the Sanskrit language, and the Shee-king 
of the Chinese ; in ten pages of the former, containing four 
hundred and fifty-nine words, he found only thirteen mono- 
syllables, and of these thirteen, seven do not occur in the 
Shee ; nor are any two of them used to express the same idea 
in both languages. He next took four pages of the Maha- 
bharu (Mahabharat) in the Bengalee dialect, containing two 
hundred and sixty- five words, in which he found only seven 
monosyllables, and of these three only were Chinese. Pro- 
ceeding in the same manner, he proves that there exists not 
the most distant resemblance between the Chinese and the 
Hebrew languages ! In examining the speech of Judah to 
Joseph, in the 44th chapter of Genesis, he finds it to contain 
two hundred aad six words, in which there occur sixteen 
monosyllables, but of these seven only are Chinese words. 
In Abraham's intercession for Sodom, out of two hundred and 
thirty words, ten only are monosyllables, and of these four 
are Chinese. (Article China, p. 68.) 

in. Assuming the perfect accuracy of these comparisons, 
which I have not the slightest disposition to doubt, I cannot 
but express my surprise at the conclusion at which the 
learned doctor arrived. If the Chinese be, as we are so con- 
fidently assured it is, strictly a monosyllabic language, it 
follows, as a matter of course, that we are not to look for any 
analogy with it in other languages, except in words of one 
syllable, and in the trial with the Bengalee, out of seven 
monosyllables, three were Chinese, and in that with the 
Hebrew, in one instance out of sixteen monosyllables, seven, 
and in the other, out of ten, four were Chinese, or, in other 
words, where it was possible that there should have been any 
resemblance, that resemblance was found to extend nearly 
to one half; out of thirty-three monosyllabic words of the 
Bengalee and the Hebrew, he meets with fourteen out of the 



OF CHINA. 45 

three hundred and thirty words, of which the Chinese lan- 
guage is said to be composed, and concludes with requesting 
us to believe, very inconsistently with his premises, as it 
appears to me, that the Chinese is altogether a peculiar lan- 
guage, and has nothing in common with any other. To 
prove that this is very far from being the case, I shall now 
proceed to point out the numerous analogies I have re- 
marked between the Chinese and many other languages both 
of Asia and Europe. 

iv. List of Chinese words, from the names of the 214 keys, 
or elementary characters, as given in the Supplement to the 
Encyclopedia Britannica, with their analogies in other lan- 



Chinese Words. Analogies. 

1. Ye-one, alone, the chief, the "1 la, (Greek), the Fern, of ios, alone. 

same J Yek (Persic), one, once. 

4. Pei, to arrive at Pay (Persic), end, limit. 

8. Too, the summit, or top of 1 rp /T > • \ ,, n L „ , 

any thing J To ( Persic )' cream, the fat of broth. 

9 Jin, a man, mankind Jan (Sanskrit), man individually, or 

collectively. All Nouns Ethnical 
terminating in ian. 

10. Jin, the ancient character for 1 T m „ /T) . x .,, ., 

m ' an \ Jinan (Persic), the world. 

14. Mee, to cover, the roof of a I May, or Mo (Persic), the hair of the 
house J head. 

{Sayah (Persic), a shade or shadow. 
Siyah (Persic), black. 
Skia (Greek), shadow. 

37. Ta, great, gross Ta (Persic), multiplicity. 

38. Neu, a virgin Kau (Persic), new, fresh. 

40. Miou, a covering, a roof. Moy (Persic), the hair of the head. 

45. Che, a bud Chah (Persic), used in forming dimi- 

nutives, as Ghun-Chah, a rose bud. 

46. Shan, a hill, or mountain Shain (Hebrew), a sharp cliff. 

48. Kung, work, an artificer Kayn (Persic), forming, framing. 

51. Kan, a shield Ma-Gain (Hebrew), a shield. 

" used as a pre - 

52. Yau, the sign of the future 1 Yood ( Y) (Hebrew), ^ to v de : 

-shall... /Ye (Arabic),! notethe3d 

v " person — 

future. 

65. Chee, the branches of a tree... Chah (Persic), a bud. 

67. Wan, fair Wan (English), pale. 

72. Jee,orGe,thesun (^ w <?er sic), the sun. 

L Gmn (Turkish), the sun. 



46 THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE 

Chinese Words. Analogies. 

72. Ge, ancient Chinese Q Phre, the sun, Egyptian |0. 

73. Yue, to speak, to name Hue and cry, English. 

{Uh (Sanskrit), the moon. 
Ioh (Egyptian), the moon. 
Ai (Turkish), the moon. 
82. Mau, the hair Moy (Persic), the hair. 

84. Kee, living principle Chai (Hebrew), life. 

85. Shwee, one of the elements ... Shuway (Arabic), a small matter. 
87. Chau, nails Claw, English. 

["Kuon, Greek. 

94. Koon, a dog -I Canis, Latin. 

l^Chien, French. 

102. Tien, a cultivated field Tin (Chaldee), clay. 

103. Pay, the foot Pai (Persic), the foot. 

106. Pee, white, clear, pure Bi (Persic), privative, without. 

117. Hee, to erect, to build High, English. 

132. Tse, self, himself. Se, Latin. 

146. See, west ( Sa ^ ah (Persic), a shade, or shadow 

147. Kien, to see Ken (English), to see. 

161. Shin, a portion of time equal"! c , . /T r i \ x 

to two hours J Shem ( Heb ^)> two. 

171 . Tai, until, at, or to a certain j Ta (Perg . ^ gQ ^ 

point J v /» ■ ' 

176. Mien, the face Mien (English), look, manner. 

189. Kau, high, eminent, noble Koh (Persic), a hill, a mountain. 

1 94. Quoi, a spirit, a ghost Khoi (Persic), oneself. 

203. Shee, black, dark fSiyah (Persic) black. 

' ' I Skia (Greek), shadow. 

211. Tehee, the teeth { IwSb^' } B ^°^' 

v. List of Chinese words, from the Glossary at the end 
of the first volume of Du Halde, 4 tomes 4to, a la Haye, 
1736. 

Chinese Words. Analogies. 

Fo, Budha, happiness Phe (Egyptian), heaven. 

" The substance of Fo is one, 
but he has three forms." 
Fong-hoang, the phoenix ; (the "1 In David's Turkish Grammar, we 
sun), literally, yellow eagle. J meet with the remarkable expres- 
sion, " the sun, the golden -winged 
bird of heaven." 

Ki, the soul Chi (Hebrew), (radical letters), life. 

Lao would appear to be merely an- 
other name of Fo, or Budha. 

Long- Yen, dragons eye Ain, the eye, Hebrew and Arabic. 

Mo, negative particle Ma, Persic and Arabic. 



or china. 47 

Chinese Woi-ds. Analogies. 

Mou, mother Mau, Egyptian. 

Mou-Sing, the planet Jupiter 

Mou-Tsae, Shepherd and governor of the people, is very like 
Moses, if we did not know that the etymology of that word 
is Egyptian. 

Pou-sa, Du Halde says, the god of Porcelaine ; but the word, 
from the way in which it is used, is evidently a general name 
of deity. If Pousa's name and attributes had been known 
in England, he would have been frequently invoked at sales 
of old china, and have had the honour of numbering among 
the most devoted of his votaries no less distinguished a person 
than Horace Walpole. 

Tai-ki, great soul. 

Tchang, eternal. 

Tchang-koue, middle kingdom. 

Chum-cue, central kingdom. Jones, vol. iii. p. 139. 

Chung-quo, middle kingdom. Art. China, Sup. Ency. Brit. 
Note. — Not the least difficulty connected with Chinese 
philology is the indefinite orthography, of which the above is 
a specimen. The Chinese disguise European words so much 
by their manner of writing them, that they are scarcely to be 
recognised, and European authors have not been much be- 
hindhand in returning the compliment. The language of the 
Celestial Empire in some instances appears to differ from 
other languages, in the same degree as that of gods and men 
differed in Homer's time, when the former called that river 
Xanthus, which the latter denominated Scamander ; and 
ascribed to Myrinna, the tomb known to mortals as that of 
Bateia. 

Ti, emperor. 

Tiao, honour paid to the dead ... {^ggffi*^ 

Tien, heaven, the god of heaven. 
Tien-heou, queen of heaven. 
Tien-hia, China, i. e. under heaven. 

Y, one See final I in Persic — letter Ye. 

Yemen, tribunal of justice Yamen (Sanskrit), Judge of Hell. 

Yaomo, a malevolent genius Yama (Sanskrit), death, Pluto. 

vano'-fi'nff 11 ^ ° I Q ucere > G enen and Gehenna, Greek . 

vi. From the Index to De Guignes, Voyages a Pekin, 8fc, 
3 tomes, Paris, 1808. 

Chinese Words. Analogies. 

Chang-ty, the Supreme Being 
Cbe-kia, a name of Budha, \ 

Ju-kiao, a name of Fo, or Budha. J 



48 THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE 

Chinese Words. Analogies. 

Kien, heaven, written also Tien. 
Men-chin, the genius of doors. 
Tao, the principle of heaven and earth. 
Tay-ky, the principle of heaven and earth. 
Temples of Confucius. 

the sun, Ge-tan. 

the moon, Yue-tan. 

heaven, Tien-tan. 

earth, Ty-tan Ty, appears to be cognate with the 

Doric Da, the earth. 

It is impossible, it appears to me, to peruse the preceding 
lists of words with attention, without being convinced that 
the language of the Chinese, so far from having nothing in 
common with any other, presents at every step numerous 
points of resemblance ; and I am fully persuaded that, with 
the progress of accurate philological knowledge, we shall no 
more expect to find any language standing apart, and insu- 
lated from all other languages, than we think of looking for 
" men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." 

vn. I shall now proceed to offer some further illustrations 
of the Chinese spoken language ; and a glance at their gram- 
mar, will convince us, if I am not very much mistaken, that, 
if they have borrowed nothing from other nations, they have 
imparted a great deal ; and that, whatever degree of antiquity 
we may be disposed to allow to the Chinese annals, in the 
state in which they are presented to us, their language and 
grammatical arrangements have irresistible claims to be 
regarded as among the very oldest of which the art of 
writing has preserved any record. 

We are informed by Du Halde that there are two spoken 
languages in China : one confined to the common people, 
which varies so much in different parts of the empire, that 
the inhabitants of one province can scarcely understand 
those of another ; and the other, which is denominated the 
Mandarin language, that of the court, the church, and the 
schools, the use of which appears to be somewhat analogous 
to that of Latin in Europe, or of Sanskrit among the dialects 
of the Indian continent. The number of spoken words is 
said not to exceed three hundred and thirty ; the meaning of 



OF CHINA. 49 

which, however, is varied almost indefinitely by accentuation ; 
and as the Greek language is said to be derived from about 
three hundred roots, or primitive words, perhaps this appa- 
rent coincidence was the circumstance which induced Webb 
to write an essay to prove that the Greek language was de- 
rived from the Chinese. I strongly suspect that in both 
instances there is much, perhaps an equal degree of, exagge- 
ration, and an equally narrow foundation of fact. 

viii. The following abstract of Chinese grammar is chiefly 
borrowed from the work of the younger De Guignes, who 
resided several years in the country, and was well acquainted 
with their language and literature. In compositions of an 
elevated style the Chinese decline no noun and conjugate 
no verb ; and in fact the same word, according to circum- 
stances, is a noun, a verb, or an adverb, all the varieties of 
meaning being indicated by its position. The Chinese word, 
therefore, agrees with the Sanskrit Dhato or root, which, 
standing alone, has neither case, gender, nor number. 

ix. The Nominative is represented by a simple word, for 
example, Fong, the wind, a word which appears to be cog- 
nate with the Latin ventus, and still more so with the 
French vent, as pronounced. Sometimes the Chinese, es- 
pecially those of the northern provinces, add the words Teou, 
Tse, and Eul ; but this usage is regarded as inelegant. The 
nominative is placed near to, and precedes the verb. 

x. The Genitive is distinguished by the particles Ty and 
Tchy ; but they are merely understood, and not expressed 
when the sense is clear without them. When written, it is 
in the following way, Gin ti hao, which, translating the 
words in the order in which they stand, means of man the 
kindness. And here it is impossible not to be struck, not 
with the similarity, but the perfect identity, in the mode of 
forming the genitive case, between Chinese nouns and such 
Greek and Latin ones as increase in that case. Among the 
Chinese keys, or elements, we have seen (No. 9.) Jin, signi- 
fying man, mankind. Du Halde writes the word Gin, and 
according to him Gin ti signifies of man. In Latin we find 
the word Gens, a people, the genitive case of which is Gen- 

E 



50 THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE 

ti-s, formed by inserting the particle ti between the third and 
fourth letters of the root Gens. Dens, a tooth, is another 
example of precisely the same kind, as it forms in the genitive 
Den-ti-s. By writing the Ti, Di, with a letter of the same 
organ, it is equally obvious in the Latin words Pes, Pe-di-s, 
a foot ; and we find the Ti slightly changed in the Greek 
Odons, Odon-to-s, a tooth. Pay, the foot, is the 103rd 
Chinese root, or key. One cannot but feel strongly disposed, 
from these instances, to derive the Latin de, and the Italian 
di, from the Chinese Ti. 

xi. The Dative is characterised by the particles Yu and Y, 
which precede the substantive, but are frequently omitted. 
Here again there is an analogy, though not so close, between 
the Chinese, and the Greek and Latin, as the Oriental Y is 
frequently rendered in the European languages by I, which 
forms the termination of many Greek and Latin datives, as 
Basileus, Basile-i, Rex, Reg-i, a king. 

xii. The usual mark of the Accusative is that it follows 
the verb, some verbs however require it to precede them. 
Both the Vocative, and Ablative, like the genitive, are formed 
by the use of particles. The plural of nouns is formed by 
the addition of Men, or Teng after the words. The former 
suggests close analogies with the Greek, in the genitive and 
dative formations of the personal pronouns ego and su, in 
the plural number. 

xiii. In Chinese, Adjectives do not agree with their sub- 
stantives, or in other words are invariable in their termina- 
tions, as in Persic and English. They generally, but not 
always, precede the noun. The comparative is formed by the 
addition of the words Keng-hao, better ; and the superlative, 
sometimes by the employment of particles, and sometimes 
by doubling the positive with the addition of the word Ty. 
The latter mode is very like the Hebrew ; as in the account 
of creation, in the first chapter of Genesis, we find tob, 
good, and tob tob, very good. It is remarkable that the 
plural of Chinese substantives is sometimes formed in the 
same way ; as Jin, a man ; Jin Jin, men. In Chinese, as in 
Persic, the distinctions of sex are expressed by the addition 



OF CHINA. 51 

of appropriate words ; as Nan Jin, a man ; Nuu-Jin, a woman : 
in Persic, Sheeri-Ner, a lion ; Sheeri-Made, a lioness. 

xiv. The Personal Pronouns are Ngo, me ; Ni or Ny, 
thee ; Ta, him ; and these are converted into plurals by the 
addition of Men, and into possessives by the addition of Ti, 
the formatives also, as we have seen, of the plurals and 
genitives of substantives, as Ngo ti, my ; Ni ti, thy ; Ta ti, his. 
xv. All the conjugations of the Chinese Verbs are effected 
by means of auxiliaries, and they are very much in the habit 
of speaking in the third person, more especially when ad- 
dressing superiors. Du Halde says, that, strictly speaking, 
they have no tenses but the present, the preterite, and the 
future ; in this respect nearly agreeing with the Hebrew, 
Arabic, and whole family of Shemitic languages. The 
preterite is formed by the addition of the word Leao, and 
the future, of Yau, or Yao. The letter Y is the formative 
of the third person of the future in Hebrew and Arabic ; and 
the Chinese Ta, he or him, appears to constitute the termi- 
nation of the third person singular of the Latin verb, as Sum, 
es, est, Amo, amas, amat. The passive voice in Chinese is 
formed by adding the particle Pi. 

xvi. Du Halde remarks that, although the Chinese language 
actually consists of so small a number of words, its apparent 
poverty is by no means inconsistent with real copiousness, 
as the same word is frequently not only noun and verb, but 
also preposition, adverb, and conjunction. In other parts of 
this work I have endeavoured to show the probability that alt 
the words in every language were primarily formed from nouns 
substantive, and that in many instances they may be traced 
back to, and resolved into, them again. The division of 
language by grammarians into ten parts of speech, or sorts 
of words, is perfectly unobjectionable, perhaps desirable, for 
the sake of order, clearness, and facility of reference ; but we 
must never forget that the arrangement is altogether artificial, 
and that many others might have been quite as good, or even 
better, as it is very much more matter of prescription than of 
reflection. But it has happened in language, as in many of 
the physical sciences, in which, having first made an artificial 

E 2 



52 SPOKEN LANGUAGE OF CHINA. 

classification solely for our own convenience, we have at 
length become surprised and disappointed at discovering that 
nature refused to bend to it, when the lesson conveyed, if we 
had been disposed properly to attend to it, was, not that 
nature was wrong, but that our mode of operating was not 
right ; that our observations were narrow, our facts badly 
defined, our reasonings illogical, and that all our proceedings 
bore much stronger marks of our own essential feebleness 
and littleness, than of being adapted to the variety of her 
means, the grandeur of her scale, and the sublimity of her 
results. 



53 



CHAP. VI. 

ON THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF EGYPT. THE COPTIC AND 

SAHIDIC. 

" But on the south a long majestic race 
Of Egypt's priests the gilded niches grace, 
Who measured earth, described the starry spheres, 
And traced the long records of lunar years. 
High on his car Sesostris struck my view, 
Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew : 
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold ; 
His giant limbs are arm'd in chains of gold. 
Between the statues obelisks were placed, 
And the learn 'd walls with hieroglyphics graced." 

Pope's Temple of Fame. 

i. Perhaps there is hardly any one subject calculated to 
throw so much light on every branch of philology, as a complete 
history of the formation of the Egyptian alphabet. Un- 
fortunately, however, the whole matter is deeply involved in 
doubt and difficulty. Of the few facts which seem to be 
established, none are clearly and circumstantially narrated, 
nor are they susceptible of being arranged with much con- 
fidence in a strictly chronological order. Such as they are, 
however, I shall now proceed to lay them before my readers, 
assigning the first place to an authority, not indeed of very 
early date, but still of great weight and importance, the pro- 
found and philosophical Tacitus. He says : " The Egyptians 
were the first who had the ingenuity to express by outward 
signs the ideas passing in the mind. Under the form of 
animals they gave a body and a figure to sentiment. Their 
hieroglyphics were wrought in stone, and are to be seen at 
this day, the most venerable monuments of human memory. 
The invention of letters is also claimed by the Egyptians. 
According to their account, the Phoenicians found legible 
characters in use throughout Egypt, and being much em- 
ployed in navigation, carried them into Greece ; importers of 
the art, but not entitled to the glory of the invention. The 
history of the matter, as related by the Phoenicians, is, that 

*E 3 



54 THE LANGUAGE OF 

Cadmus, with a fleet from their country, passed into Greece 
and taught the art of writing to a rude and barbarous people. 
We are told by others, that Cecrops the Athenian, or Linus 
the Theban, or Palamedes the Argive, who flourished during 
the Trojan war, invented sixteen letters ; the honour of 
adding to the number, and making a complete alphabet, is 
ascribed to different authors, and in particular to Simonides." 
(Murphy's Tacitus, Ann. book xi. c. 14.) 

ii. This elaborate passage which appears to be so full of in- 
formation, really proves little more than our entire ignorance 
of the subject, and convinces us of nothing, except that 
nothing is certainly known. The invention of alphabetical 
characters is ascribed by some to Memnon the Egyptian, 
who lived fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus in 
Greece, or B. c. 1822 : and by Tacitus, as we have seen in the 
preceding paragraph, to Cecrops the Athenian, who is said 
to have conducted a colony from Sais into Attica about the 
year B. C. 1556 ; to Linus the Theban, who is supposed 
to have lived about 500 years before the foundation of 
Rome, or B. c. 1253 ; and to Palamedes the Argive, who 
flourished during the siege of Troy, B. c. 1184: while 
Josephus informs us that Homer, who, according to Hero- 
dotus, lived 400 years before himself, or in the ninth 
century before the Christian era, left no written works 
because there was no alphabet in existence in which to write 
them. 

in. And it would appear as if circumstances of every kind 
had conspired to keep us in profound and perpetual igno- 
rance. Egypt is, perhaps, more full of the remains of art 
than either Greece or Italy ; and its architects planned and 
executed on a scale of colossal magnitude, of which the latter 
countries present few or no examples. Its tombs, its temples, 
and above all its pyramids, are so many quarries above 
ground ; and yet, by a singular fatality, not a vestige of an 
inscription in alphabetical characters has ever been discovered 
on any of them. While the Thesaurus of Greek and 
Roman antiquities by Graevius and Gronovius occupies thirty- 
nine folio volumes, I do not believe that so many lines, or 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 55 

words, that can be said to be strictly alphabetical, have ever 
been discovered in Egypt of an earlier date than the accession 
of the Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies, B. C. 323. Herodotus 
informs us that the pyramid of Cheops once contained an 
inscription, which Larcher, his learned French translator, 
believes to have been alphabetical, giving an account of the 
various sums of money expended during the progress of the 
work for the radishes, onions, and garlic consumed by the 
artificers. (Herod, lib. i. c. 125.) 

iv. The female figure described in the Apocalypse, upon 
whose brow was written Mystery, appears to be in many 
respects an apt type of ancient Egypt ; as she herself is an 
enigma, and every thing connected with her as dark as the 
responses of oracles. After making some inquiries as to the 
origin of the Egyptian alphabet, we naturally wish to know 
in what direction they wrote ; whether like the Hebrews, and 
most of the people speaking the Shemitic languages, from 
right to left ; or like the Hindus and modern Europeans, from 
left to right ; and on this point the testimony of Herodotus, 
by whom we might have expected the question .to be set at 
rest, is so vague and unsatisfactory that it can hardly be said 
to communicate any information. " The Greeks, when they 
w T rite, or reckon by counters," says he, " proceed from the 
left to the right, the Egyptians from right to left ; notwith- 
standing which they persist in affirming that the Greeks write 
to the left, but they themselves always to the right. They 
make use of two kinds of waiting, one of which is denomi- 
nated sacred, and the other demotic." (Lib. ii. c. 36.) If 
this passage of Herodotus stands as he wrote it, it is one of 
the most singular in his work, as it respects a matter of fact, 
about which one would have supposed there could be no 
mistake ; while the opposite assertions are utterly inconsistent 
with each other, and appear to place both the writer and his 
informants in the situation of the six score thousand persons 
in Nineveh, who could not discern between their right hand 
and their left. Nor is what Herodotus seems altogether to 
forget less remarkable than the circumstance w T hich he states 
in so confused a way, viz., that the ancient mode of writing of 

E 4 



56 THE LANGUAGE OF 

the Greeks, and probably up to his own times, was that deno- 
minated by them Boustrophedon, from its resemblance to an ox 
ploughing, or from left to right, and right to left, alternately. 

v. Plutarch, in his treatise on Isis and Osiris, informs us 
that the alphabet of the ancient Egyptians consisted of 
twenty-five letters. By ancient, I believe, we must under- 
stand under the Greek dynasty, or that of the Ptolemies ; and 
by the alphabet, the Coptic, the principal literary remains of 
which language consist in fragments of a translation of the 
Old and New Testaments. In Scholtz's Coptic Grammar, 
we find the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet, with 
eight additional, making in all thirty-two. Of the former, 
however, many appear to discharge the office of numbers, 
rather than of letters, in Coptic ; as hardly any words in that 
language begin with Gamma, Delta, Zeta, Xi, Psi, So (St), 
or Di, and indeed several of them occupy no place whatever 
in the Lexicon. The Coptic letters not contained in the 
Greek alphabet are, Schei (sh), Phei (f), Chei (k, ch), Hon 
(h), Genga (g), Skima (sk), Dei (ti). 

vi. I shall now proceed to give a list of some of the most 
remarkable words I have observed in the Coptic and Sahidic, 
and point out their analogies with those of other languages. 

Coptic Words. Analogies. 

Atshi, muliercula, a girl ; from At, "1 c , ^ ru , 

negative particle* and Shi, 1 1 £ gg"* P™ pe^ . 

woman, she who is not a woman, j ^. fp ot v r \ 
i. e. who is a girl. Derivatives, J , 

» , . •. f Aish (Hebrew), a man. 

Ash, quis, who tAsher (Hebrew), who. 

f Ebion (Hebrew), poor, needy. 

E bien, humilis, vilis -j Abios (Greek) , destitute of the 

(_ means of supporting life. 
Note — This word appears to supply the etymology of 
Ebionites in Ecclesiastical History ; it is also remarkable that, 
although Ebion occurs in the Hebrew Pentateuch, it looks 
like a derivative from the Greek Abios. 
Entot, habere, from En, injicere, and Tot, manus ; literally, to 
lay hands on. In Hebrew we have Caph, the palm of the 
hand, and in Latin, Captus, i. e. with the palm of the hand 
closed on it, caught, or taken. 
Et, qui, qua?, quod Et, and (Latin). 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 57 

Coptic Words. Analogies. 

The, quae, articulus relativus fcem. The (English), definite article. 
„„ v f Tomb (English), place of burial. 

Thorns, sepelire (Entomb, to bury. 

T . . fl, go (Sanskrit). 

I, ire, venire il,ito (Latin). 

Karia, cassis, a helmet Probably this is the only ground 

Herodotus has for saying that the Carians were the first who 
added crests to their helmets. 

Ke, iterum Kai (Greek). 

Ket, sedificare This word appears to enter into the 

composition of the Homeric epithet Euktimenos, which is always 
translated well built, but which is very unsatisfactorily explained 
by any etymology merely Greek; Kota, a shed (Sanskrit), and 
Cot (English), appear to be cognate. 

Kour, mutus, Rcnfp The Greeks evidently read the final 

R as P, and formed Kwcpos. 

ir , , f Koh (Persic), a hill. 

Koh ' arock tKoh (Chinese), high. 

[ Less (English), that which is made 

Les, confringere, to break in pieces \ ^^'(Englkh), the act of making 

[ small. 

Ma, locus, and perhaps terra. 

Mai, amor Note. — Maia was one of the names 

of Cybele, who was supposed to preside over fertility, vege- 
tation, and generation, under one or another of her denomina- 
tions, Terra, Rhea, Bona Dea, or Magna Mater. The name of 
our month of May is probably borrowed from the Coptic word, 
and our Maypoles are a vestige of heathen worship, perhaps 
nearly coeval with the human race. 

Maie, tantus, quantus Maha (Sanskrit), great. 

T. r , fMaa (Sanskrit). 

Mau ' mater JMa (Greek), isch. Supp. 897. 

Mah, implere Maha (Sanskrit), increase. 

T. r . ,. fEmera (Greek), a day. 

Men, dies JEmere (Ionic), form/ 

Mor, ligare Moor a ship, i. e. to fasten or tie. 

Mour, vinculum Mooring-chain (English). 

Amsah, a crocodile Note. — To the ears of Herodotus this 

word sounded as if commencing with an aspirate, and accordingly 
he wrote it Champsa. The old Egyptians probably spelt it 
with their letter Hori, the Roman H, and wrote Hamsah. 

Antoou, terrestris Note. — This word, with a Greek 

termination, supplies a probable etymology of the name of the 
giant Antaeus, the son of Neptune and Terra. The generic 
word giant, and its equivalents in most languages, mean no 
more than earth-born. 

Ouon, habere To own, to possess (English). 

Ouosh, voluntas, desiderium Wish, English. 



58 THE LANGUAGE OP 

Coptic Word. Analogies. 

Ouom, to eat; Ouoni-anhet, to "j This illustrates an expression of 

grieve ; literally, to eat the j- Homer's, who, describing the me- 

heart. J lancholy end of Bellerophon, says — 

? Htoi o KairiT^iov rh 'AX-q'iov ohs a\a,TO, 

"Ov &V/J.OV koltcZuiv, irarov avOpcoircov aXzzlvwv. Iliad, vi. 201. 

" Qui miser in campis moerens errabat Aleis, 
Ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans." 

Cicero, Tusc. Qucest. iii. 26. 

Pe, sum Pelo, and Pelomai, Greek. 

-p /Root (English), i.e. the foot of the 

Kat ' P es 1 plant. 

Rek, inclinare, to rock a cradle, to cause it to incline from side 
to side, a rocking-horse. 

Ret, plantare, that is, to cause to take root: see Rat above. 

Rimi, fletus..... Rheum, English. 

Note.— " Bisson rheum," Hamlet. 
The Commentators explain this by blind rheum. The idea 
intended to be conveyed evidently is, that Hecuba's tears were 
so copious, that they threatened to extinguish the flames of 
Troy. In Coriolanus we read? " At a few drops of women's 
rheum, which are as cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour 
of our great action." In these two passages of Shakspeare, 
the word rheum clearly signifies tears or weeping, and is no 
less evidently derived from the Coptic Rimi. 

Rompi, annus Note. — If we substitute time in 

general for the year, this is very likely to have been a name 
of Chronus or Saturn, mentioned Amos, v. 26., and Acts, vii. 43. 

Rot, germinare But as it is written with Omega, or 

two Omicrons, it is our English word Root, letter for letter ; and, 
used as a verb, is equivalent to take root, to bud. 

Sat, seminare satum (Latin), sown. 

Sen, gladius, Sif, Arabic, Xiphos, Greek. Perhaps 

the Hebrew word Saphah, a lip or edge, is the root of all these 
words. 

Sladi, labi Slide, English. 

o.L v m i t, f Steel, English, 

Stah, Chalybs {^ ^^ 

o . • f Shond (Persic), they are. 

Sont, creatio jg^ ^ ' 

Phat, pes Foot, English. 

" Bat, lingua Bali quse est lingua erudita Sinaensium." (La Loubere.) 

TJ1 t ud ov'r t fFrore and frozen, English: that 

Phro,hyems,withRe,Sahidic,fa-l wMi . g ^ ^ » of ^^ 

cere . L Frore, Milton. 

Phork, lorica Thorax, Greek and Latin. 

Note. — This was an ambiguous 
character in the early alphabets of Greece and Italy, and read 
sometimes as Phi and sometimes as Theta. Read as Theta, 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 59 

Coptic Words. Analogies. 

for Phork we have Tkork, and by the insertion of a vowel, 
Thorax, Greek and Latin. 

Chrof, dolosus Craft and crafty, English. 

Chrom, ignis Cremo, Latin to burn; in the infini- 
tive mode cremare, from Chrom, and Re (Sahidic), facere. Cre- 
mare is, therefore, literally, to make a fire. "We have the word 
in English, in the first syllable of Cromlegh, a Druidical altar. 
Shorn, sestas, summer, and pro-1 c -^ r , ,-, , ,. 

bably *stus, heat, with Er, I Summer English, or that season of 
facere, Coptic. J the ? ear whlch P roduces h eat. 

Fatou and Fatoou, plural of Fato, 

and Fate, four Note. — The characters for Phi and 

Chi are frequently perfectly undistinguishable in Etruscan, or 
early Greek, according to some of Lanzi's readings, both being 
which is one form of Ethiopic Vau. From Fatoou, with 
the addition of a final r, we have Fidwor, Gothic ; and Pedwar, 
Welch ; and by dropping t and d, we have Vier, German and 
Dutch, and Four, English. By reading the initial letter Ch, 
instead of Ph, we have Chatur, Sanskrit, Chehar, Persic, and 
Quatuor, Latin. 

Chroou, vox Crow (like a cock), English. 

Halai, volare Ales (Latin), a bird ; Ala (Latin and 

Italian), a wing. 

Halet, avis Alitis Gen., Aliti Dat., Alitem 

Ace, and Alite Ab. of Ales (La- 
tin), a bird. 
Note. — This word was evidently known to Homer, and 
he has employed it in the Odyssey, book ii. line 18G. 
" The prince of augurs, Halitherses rose. 
Prescient he view'd the aerial tracks, and drew 
A sure presage from every wing that flew." 
Halet, a bird, and Ter, all, Coptic, and Es, Greek termination, 
in Greek Alitherses with the spiritus asper, and in Latin Hali- 
therses. 

Htho, equus By reading Theta as Chi, which the 

Etruscans appear to have done in many instances, we have 

Hacho, or Equo, the Dative case of Equus, which is cognate 

with the softer sound of Hay a, ahorse, Sanskrit. 

Tpolis, a city, with the Egyptian 1 Hence by transposition we have the 

fern. art. t prefixed and coa- j- Homeric words Ptolis, a city, and 

lescing. J Ptoliethron, a town. 

vii. The Coptic Grammar will not detain us so long as the 
Lexicon has done, as the light thrown on the structure of 
speech by the former, appears to me to be much less clear 
than the illustrations of the affinity of languages supplied by 
the latter. The first question is, in what class of Ian- 



60 THE LANGUAGE OF 

guages are the Coptic and Sahidic to be arranged? are they of 
the great Arabic, or the Indian family ? and what are their 
leading characteristics ? To which I reply, that they have 
much more in common with the Shemitic than the Sanskrit, 
as I shall endeavour to prove by applying the criteria es- 
tablished in the First Chapter. All their nouns, whether the 
names of things animate or inanimate, are invested with a 
gender, which may be either masculine, feminine, or common ; 
but they have no neuter, and what is very remarkable, the 
distinctions of gender are not observed in the plural number. 
There is no attempt to lay down any general rules for de- 
termining the gender of nouns, which must be ascertained 
either by signification, or by the preceding article, or by the 
pronoun, adjective, participle, or verb by which they are 
accompanied. 

viii. Adjectives and participles never vary their termi- 
nation, but are the same in both genders ; and this appears to 
be incurring all the trouble of the distinction of gender, 
without reaping any of the attendant advantages. Through- 
out all animated nature, the mind experiences no difficulty 
in making the distinctions of gender co-extensive with those 
of sex — so far it is the work of reason, but all beyond seems 
to belong to the imagination. The genius of the East appears 
from the earliest ages, to have delighted in the multiplication 
of tropes and figures, and the ascription of gender to things 
inanimate is a sort of personification, and an investing of them 
with the powers of life ; but if the adjective be undeclined, 
its agreement with its substantive can be ascertained only by 
j uxta-position ; and while philosophy appears to lose by the 
attempt to establish a distinction not founded on the nature 
of things, poetry and eloquence do not gain. By the power 
of separating the noun substantive and adjective in Greek 
and Latin, much is effected with respect to harmony, and 
little lost as regards clearness. If we attempt to translate 
from Virgil — 



" Extinctum Nymphse crudeli funere Daphnim 
Flebant," 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 61 

word by word, we must write — dead the nymphs by a cruel 
fate Daphnis lamented ; and it is not until we apply the rules 
of grammar to the sentence, and observe the distinctions of 
gender, case, and number, that we discover that it is not the 
nymphs who are dead, but Daphnis ; that he was snatched 
away by a cruel fate, and they survived to lament his death. 

IX. In the Coptic and Sahidic, we discover that pecu- 
liarity which certainly constitutes one of the broadest lines 
of distinction between the Shemitic and the Indian family of 
languages. The various persons of the verb, in all the 
different tenses, recognise the distinctions of gender, or, in 
other words, sympathise with the person addressed or de- 
scribed, whether man or woman. As in Hebrew, the first 
person is common, the second and third masculine and fe- 
minine in the singular number. In Hebrew, the distinction 
of masculine and feminine is carried into the plural of the 
verb ; in Egyptian, it ceases in the plural altogether. In this 
respect the verb sympathises with the noun, in which, as has 
been already remarked, the distinction of gender is not ob- 
served in the plural number. This throws some light on the 
origin and formation of language. What are denominated 
by grammarians the parts of speech were primarily all nouns, 
and in the Hebrew it is easy to prove that the noun and 
verb differ only in being joined to, and terminated by, a 
different set of pronouns, which primarily were nouns also. 

x. The Egyptian verbs have only one conjugation, like the 
Hebrew. The conjugation in Hiphil, or the Causative, is 
formed by means of the verb Thre, or Thro, to make, or do. 
They have no neuter gender, which is expressed by the 
feminine ; nor have they any dual number. The Egyptians 
have five tenses, the present, the imperfect, the perfect, the 
pluperfect, and the future, in which they agree with the 
Latin ; but they have three forms of the future, the Sanskrit 
and Greek each having two. 

xi. The passive form of the verb does not differ from the 
active in termination; but must sometimes be inferred from 
the circumstances, and sometimes distinguished by the sense 
alone. This is also the case with the Arabic, as far as the 



62 LANGUAGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 

radical letters are concerned, the active and passive voice 
being expressed by the vowel points, Fatha, Kesra and 
Darnma, the use of which is probably not much older than 
the Koran. The same remark applies in some degree to the 
Hebrew, as the Anti-Masorists deny the antiquity of Piel, 
Pual, and Poel. (Masclef, torn. i. p. 80.) 

xii. The preter-pluperfect is expressed by prefixing the 
formatives of the imperfect to the preterite or second future. 
This is exactly the reverse of the Latin, where the preter- 
pluperfect is formed by prefixing the perfect Fui to the 
imperfect Eram, — Fui Eram, Fueram ; Amavi Eram, by 
contraction Amaveram. 

The nouns of the Egyptians, strictly speaking, cannot be 
said to possess declensions, and Varro remarked of them that 
they had only one case. 



63 



CHAP. VII. 

ON THE HEBREW LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

" A nation from one faithful man to spring : 
Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, 
Bred up in idol- worship." Paradise Lost, book xii. 

i. Sir William Jones gives it as his opinion, but without 
assigning any ground for it, that the square or Chaldee 
characters, in which most Hebrew books are written, are not 
of a very remote antiquity. On this point I would observe, 
that whatever may be the origin or antiquity of the cha- 
racters, we possess more clear information respecting both 
their number, and the order in which they were arranged in 
the alphabet at a very early period, than we do perhaps 
with regard to any other. Every scholar who looks at the 
1 1 9th Psalm, will readily infer, that its twenty-two portions 
or divisions are denominated from the twenty-two letters of 
the Hebrew alphabet ; but the Hebrew scholar only is aware 
that every one of the eight verses arranged under each letter 
invariably begins with that letter, so that the whole Psalm 
forms a long acrostic, in one of the very last compositions in 
the world in which we should have thought of looking for 
such a piece of wit. The letters, then, do not merely serve 
the purpose of division, and occupy the place of ciphers or 
numerals, in which case they might by possibility have been 
no older than the invention of printing, but the Psalm was 
evidently written for the letters, and whatever may be the 
age of that composition, so old at least is the arrangement 
and settlement of the Hebrew alphabet. After reading the 
Hebrew Scriptures with great attention, I can only discover 
that a letter, or rather a point, has disappeared ; that is, is not 
included in the twenty-two which at present constitute the 



64 THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 

Hebrew alphabet, and that is in the instance of the letter 
Ayin, with which the words Gomorrah and Gaza are now 
written, and which a point placed above it no doubt invested 
with the power of the Arabic letter Ghain, or Gh. 

ii. The Hebrew alphabet then, is as old as the actual form 
of the Book of Psalms, the whole of which are popularly 
denominated the Psalms of David. That the whole were not 
written by David, however, may be incontrovertibly proved 
by internal evidence. Psalm lxxii. concludes with the ob- 
servation " The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are 
ended," from which we should naturally infer that all the 
preceding Psalms at any rate are his ; but the last verse of 
the 53d Psalm hardly admits of a doubt that it was written 
during the Babylonish captivity, for though the Israelites 
were often tributary to the Philistines and the neighbouring 
nations, they were never carried out of their country, except 
by Shalmanezer and Nebuchadnezzar, from the former of 
which captivities they never returned, and from the latter of 
which they were restored by Cyrus. The arrangement of 
the Psalms, then, is not in a chronological order ; and re- 
specting the first seventy-two we cannot say that they were 
all written by David, while it is almost matter of de- 
monstration that the 126th and the 137th Psalms could not 
by any possibility have been so. Admitting the Jewish 
Scriptures, then, to have received their present form from 
Ezra, as appears to be asserted in the apocryphal book of 
Esdras, the present arrangement of the Hebrew alphabet is 
probably nearly as old as the return of Ezra from Babylon, 
which is fixed by Sir Isaac Newton at B.C. 457. 

in. In the Hebrew language nouns have three genders, 
and are either masculine, feminine, or common ; and three 
numbers, singular, dual, and plural. The cases are not 
distinguished by varying terminations, as in the Greek and 
Latin ; but by particles prefixed, as in English. 

iv. Adjectives have three degrees of comparison — positive, 
comparative, and superlative. The second is formed by 
placing the word Min after the positive ; and the third, by 
placing the word Meod, very, before it, as Meod Tob, very 



AND GRAMMAR. 65 

good, or by writing the positive twice, as, Tob, Tob, very 
good, or best. 

v. The Hebrew verb has, strictly speaking, but one con- 
jugation, but that conjugation has seven voices, or modes of 
signification : Paal or Kal, Piail and Hiphil are active ; 
Niphal, Pual, and Hophal are passive ; and Hithpael is both 
active and passive. The verb has three moods, the in- 
dicative, the imperative, and the infinitive ; and two tenses 
only, the preterite and the future, which is the case with the 
whole class of languages denominated Shemitic. 

VI. In stating that the Hebrew verb has only two tenses, 
or times, I hardly know whether the circumstance ought to 
be regarded as an imperfection in words, or a perfection in 
things ; as a defect in grammar, or a superior accuracy in 
philosophy. The greatest poet of our own times says : — 

" In all the days of Past and Future, for 
In life there is no present." Byron's Manfred, act ii. 

And nothing can be more strictly and rigidly true ; for even 
in expressing the word Present, while it exists only in the 
intention, it is part of the future, and in writing it, ere the 
action of the hand is completed, the first syllable is already 
become part of the past. Popularly however, as time is said 
to have three modes of existence, past, present, and future, 
so every language has some contrivance for expressing them ; 
and as the Hebrew has no regular present tense, it supplies 
the want of it by the use of the participle Benoni, or active, 
and as it cannot say he learns, says he is learning. And in 
another respect the language, with its two tenses, is not so 
destitute as we should at first sight expect ; for the particle 
Wa, and, when prefixed to, and read with, the future tense, 
gives it a past signification, with much of the character of 
the Greek aorist, or time indefinite. 

vit. I shall now proceed to give a list of the most remark- 
able Hebrew words which have occurred to me in the course 
of my reading, pointing out their analogies with the words of 
such other languages as I am acquainted with. 

F 



66 THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 

Hebrew Words. Analogies. 

t , l+ i | , , ■ . i J Angarah (Persic), a writing. 

§ ' 'J- * ' ^Angareion, Herodotus, viii. 98. 

Adam, proper name of the first man.. Aclima (Sanskrit), first. 

A , , ,, , f " Out of it wast thou taken." Ge- 

Adamah, earth, ground | ^^ ^ 19 

Aon, first begotten [ ^^LaUn. 

Acharon, hinder, following, fu- \ Hayam Haacharon, the western 

ture, last J sea, or the Mediterranean — Icarium 

Mare, Greek and Latin. The Greeks found the sea named by 
the Asiatics, did not understand the etymology, and invented 
the fable of Icarus to account for it. A real name can hardly 
arise from a fictitious event, or in the language of Shakspeare 
" Nothing can come of nothing." This word is also likely to have 
suggested the Acheron of the Greeks, one of the rivers of Hell. 

Bash, to be ashamed Bashful, English. 

Bohu, emptiness (chaos), Gen. i. 2. . In the Generations of Sanchoniatho 

this word is personified as the 
wife of Colpias. 
Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines. This word is remarkable 
as being compounded of Hebrew and Greek, from the radical 
letters Gba, a hill, and Chthon, ground. 

Gedi Kid, English. 

Golah, captivity Goal and jail, English. 

Dum, to be silent Dumb, English. 

Dio, ink Dim (Celtic), black. 

Haras, to lay waste, to destroy Harass, English. 

Chebel, aline, rope, cord Cable, English. 

Choph, coast, shore This appears to be the etymology of 

the Copts, the natives of Lower Egypt, on the shore of the 
Mediterranean. 
Chemed, beauty. 

Chemdah, wishing, desiring Camdeo, the Hindu god of love. 

Charoots, fine gold In English, gold of so many carats, 

i. e. the pure gold independent of 
the alloy, which is of no value. 
" Chrysa, a name of Apollo. Sophocles. 
Chrvsa, also a city dedicated to him. 

Cheres, the sun -I Homer. 

Chryses, a priest of Apollo. Homer. 
_ Chryseis, his daughter. Homer. 

Tit, clay With the Persic Tan, body; Titan, 

Greek. The Titans were giants, children of the Earth. The 
sun was a Titan in some Theogonies, and in the 19th Psalm is 
figuratively described as a giant. 

Caph, the palm of the hand This appears to be the root of the 

Latin Capio, contracted from Caph, Ego. Captus, taken, i.e. 
with the palm of the hand closed on it. 
Caiph, a rock Kephas (Greek), Peter. 



AND GRAMMAR. 67 

Hebrew Words. Analogies. 

Chetoneth, a close coat Chiton, Greek. 

Migraoth, to lessen, shorten, narrow.. Mikros (Greek), little. 

Moom, a stain, blemish Momos, a spot, Greek. 

Lo-Moom, without spot Amumon, Greek. 

Mook, to deride Mock, English. 

»«..., e , t , , f Metallon, Greek. 

Metal, a forged, or wrought bar I Metall Latin . 

of iron I Metal, English. 

f Mai (Coptic), love. 
,,.,,, , I ]\fau (Coptic), mother. 

Maieh, the womb K Maa ^nabS), mother. 

|_Ma (Greek), mother. 

" Mare (Latin and Italian), the sea. 

Mer (French), the sea. 

Mar, bitter -< Amarus (Latin), bitter. 

Amaro (Italian), bitter. 

_Amer (French), bitter. 

Nut, to shake, to tremble Nuto (Latin), to nod. 

Nfaitsach, the juice which spat- "I Nisseus (Greek), a name of Bacchus, 

ters from the pressed grapes .... J the grape personified. This is the 

etymology of all the cities of the name of Nysa, or Nyssa, which 

were at once sacred to Bacchus, and celebrated for their wines. 

Atishah, sneezing. This word appears to be imitative of the sound. 

Amas,toload, lade a beast of burden.. Amass (English), to heap together. 

Anak, the progenitor of a race of "I Anax, the son of Ccelus, and Terra. 

giants J (Pausanias.) 

-p, , . f Erebus (Greek), the son of Chaos 

Ereb, evening | and Darknes // 

" From Night the Day sprang forth and shining air, 
Whom to the love of Erebus she gave/' Hesiod's Theogony. 

.. , , , f Arrabon, Greek. 

Airabon, a pledge JArrhabo, Latin. 

Airech, or Erech, whatever is ar- \ This word appears to enter into the 

ranged, or ordered J composition of several mythological 

Greek names, such as Erechtheus, Erechthonius, &c, in some 
accounts celebrated as the first teachers of agriculture, as the 
last word implies from Arach (Hebrew), to prepare, and Chthon 
(Greek), the ground. 

Pheni, face, countenance With the Arabic word Hiat, life. 

Penates, the domestic gods of the Romans, or those in whose 
presence they conceived their ordinary life to be passed. 
Phar, a bull, bullock, Juvencus With the definite article Hay pre- 
fixed and coalescing seems to be the origin of our English word 
Heifer, as the Persic word Gaw, which is generic, is of our Cow. 
Tsidon, or Sidon, a celebrated city of Phoenicia, now called 
Said. The name is probably derived from its tutelary god 
Flercules, or the sun, in Arabic, Sid, lord, with the Tenwin, or 
Nunnation (final on), Sidon. With the Arabic definite article 
Al prefixed, and a Greek termination, Al- Sid-es, orAlcides. 

F 2 



68 THE HEBREW LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

Hebrew Wo7*ds. Analogies. 

Tsar, an enemy. 
Tsarar, to be hostile. The second word appears to be formed 

from the first, by the addition of the Coptic verb, Er, esse, 

facer e. 
Kol, a voice Call, English. 

Katan, small, young (Kitten, a young cat. 

' J ° I Kit, a small fiddle. 

Rechush, substance, goods, pos- ~| t>. , -& v , 
sessions ...?. \ RlcheS > En § llsh ' 

Raphai, Rephaini, or sons of Raphah. I am disposed to believe 
that this stange word may be Aphar, dust, earth, reversed, 
and that the Hebrew Rephaim, and the Greek Titans (Terrae 
Filii) referred to the antiquity of particular races of men, as 
Autochthones, or Aborigines, or coeval with the earth which 
they inhabited. In Psalm lxxxviii. 11. Rephaim is translated 
dead ; and the buried, in perfect conformity both with the 
Hebrew and Arabic idiom, may easily have been called sons 
or children of the earth. 

Sud, to whitewash (Sud (Turkish) milk. 

I Soapsuds, English. 

Sar, a prince, with the Coptic verb, Er, esse. 

Sarar, to bear dominion, to have rule. 

Shabah, to carry away cattle This is a very probable etymology 

of the Sabeans, or plundering Arabs 
of the desert. See Job, i. 15. 

Shalishah, Baal Shalishah, Beth Shalishah. Who was this god, 
or who were these gods ? The second word Shalishah is 
unquestionably cognate with Shelshah, three. Was it a Phili- 
stine city sacred to the Zeus Triophthalmos, or Jupiter with 
three eyes, mentioned by Pausanias, and identified by Sir 
William Jones with the Indian Siva, or have we here the 
Hindu Triad itself, and was it the house or temple of Brahmah, 
Vishnu, and Siva ? The etymology of Palestine is Sanskrit, 
from Pali, a shepherd, and Stan or Istan, place. 

Shenhabim, elephants' teeth, ivory, from Shain, a tooth ; and 
perhaps Habem is a corruption by transposition from Be- 
haimah, a large quadruped, applied to the elephant and 
hippopotamos. 

Sharak to tmtip i Surigx, a pipe. 1 „ •. 

bnarak, to pipe | Surisso, to pipe. J ^ reeK ' 

Tammuz, a deity of the Syrians, identical with the Adonis of 
the Greeks. Both are names of the sun, and I believe Tam- 
muz, or Thammuz, is a corrupted Chaldee form of the Hebrew 
Shemesh, the sun. 

Tarshish, the sea Tarisha, the ocean, Sanskrit. 

In various passages of the Old Testament Tarshish does 
not appear to denote any particular place, but the sea itself, 
and ships of Tarshish to be as nearly as possible equivalent to 
the Homeric expression lv viiujgi TtovTOTropoivi, in sea-crossing 
ships, 



CHAR VIII. 

ON THE ETHIOPIC LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

" Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard, 
Mount Amara (though this by some suppos'd 
True Paradise) under the JEthiop line 
By Nilus' head, enclosed with shining rock 
A whole day's journey high." Paradise Lost, book iv. 

I. Theee are few countries of the ancient world, the history 
of which is shrouded in more impenetrable darkness than 
that of Ethiopia. The little information we possess respect- 
ing it tends rather to excite than to gratify curiosity, to 
raise doubts rather than to satisfy them, for while Herodotus 
represents Ethiopia as civilized by Egypt, the account of 
Diodorus is precisely the reverse, and he describes the 
former as the parent and oldest settled country, and the 
latter as a colony, and comparatively recent. Respecting 
the early history of Ethiopia, chronology affords us very 
little assistance, and geography opens many sources of doubt 
and error from the ambiguity of the name. Gush in the 
Hebrew Scriptures, is to the best of my recollection uni- 
formly rendered Ethiopia by the Septuagint, and the trans- 
lators of the English version, and there are certainly three 
countries of the name of Cush mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment. Cush describes sometimes south-eastern Africa, or 
Abyssinia, sometimes northern Arabia, and perhaps the 
whole peninsula, and sometimes a country to the east of the 
Euphrates. Lieut. Wilford says, that in Hindu geography, 
Cusha Dwipa is Persia ; and the scripture Cuthah may mean 
the whole, or a part of that country, and a portion also of 
Mesopotamia. There can be no doubt, however, that when 
Herodotus speaks of Ethiopia in the following passage, he 
limits the term to the south-east of Africa. After describing 
Arabia, he says, Ethiopia, which is the extremity of the 
habitable world, is contiguous to this country on the south- 

F 3 



70 THE ETHIOPIC LANGUAGE 

west. It produces gold in great quantities, elephants with 
their prodigious teeth, trees and shrubs of every kind, as well 
as ebony ; its inhabitants are also remarkable for their size, 
their beauty, and the length of their life. (Herodotus, lib. 
iii. c. 114.) 

II. The most important information given by Herodotus 
respecting the Ethiopians is to be found in connexion with 
his account of the Automoli. After leaving Meroe in as- 
cending the Nile, you next arrive at the country of the 
Automoli, who are also known by the name of Asmach*, 
says the historian. The latter word translated into Greek 
means those who stand on the left hand of the sovereign. 
The Automoli, to the number of two hundred and forty 
thousand individuals, were formerly Egyptian warriors, and 
migrated to those parts of Ethiopia in the following manner. 
In the reign of Psammeticus (who is said to have died B. c. 
617), they were by his command stationed in different places, 
some for the defence of Elephantine against the Ethiopians, 
some at the Pelusian Daphne, some to prevent the incursions 
of the Arabians and Assyrians ; and to overawe Libya there 
was a garrison at Marea. When these Egyptians had re- 
mained for the space of three years in the above situation, 
without being relieved, they resolved, by general consent, to 
revolt from Psammeticus to the Ethiopians, on intelligence 
of which event they were immediately followed by Psamme- 
ticus, who on overtaking them earnestly adjured them not 
to desert the gods of their country, their wives, and their 
children. On their arrival in Ethiopia, the Automoli de- 
voted themselves to the service of the monarch, who in 
recompense for their conduct assigned them a certain dis- 
trict of Ethiopia, possessed by a people in rebellion against 
him, whom he ordered them to expel for that purpose. 
After the establishment of the Egyptians among them, the 
tincture which they imbibed of Egyptian manners had a 
very sensible effect in civilizing the Ethiopians. (Herodotus, 
lib. ii. c. 30.) 

* The etymology would appear to be the Arabic word Sham, the left 
hand, and the Persic Ak, or Aka. lord, 



AND GRAMMAR. VI 

in. On the other hand, Diodorus says, the Ethiopians 
affirm that the Egyptians are one of their colonies which 
was conducted into Egypt by Osiris. They even pretend 
that that country at the commencement of the world was 
merely a sea, but that the Nile carrying down in its annual 
overflowings much of the mud of Ethiopia, filled it up, and 
gradually converted it into a part of the continent. Indeed 
the mouths of the Nile exhibit a peculiarity which seems to 
prove that the whole of Egypt is the work of the river. 
After the running off of the waters, we may remark every 
year that the sea has driven against the shore great heaps of 
mud, and that the soil is augmented. They add that the 
Egyptians are indebted to them as their founders and 
ancestors for the greatest part of their laws. (Diodorus, 
lib. iii.) 

IV. As Diodorus brings the inhabitants of Egypt from 
Ethiopia, he supposes, as a matter of course, that the former 
country was indebted to the latter for its arts and knowledge 
of every description. From the Ethiopians, says he, they 
learnt to honour their kings like gods, and to bury their dead 
with so much pomp ; sculpture and writing also had their 
origin among the Ethiopians. The Egyptians make use of 
characters which are peculiar to their nation, but some are 
applied to the common purposes of life, and for this reason 
denominated vulgar ; the others are sacred, and understood 
by the priests only, who transmit the knowledge of them 
from father to son. The Ethiopians have also two sorts of 
characters, but with them they are common to everybody. 
These characters resemble, some, different kinds of animals ; 
others, the extremities of the human body ; and others again, 
mechanical instruments. Thus their writing is composed 
not of an assemblage of letters and words, but of an arrange- 
ment of figures, of which a long use has fixed the significa- 
tion in their memories. In fact, when they represent a 
hawk, a crocodile, a serpent, or some part of the human 
body, for instance an eye, a hand, a face, and such like, the 
hawk, by a very natural and obvious metaphor, signifies 
everything that is quick and sudden, because he flies more 

F 4 



72 THE ETHIOPIC LANGUAGE 

swiftly than any other bird ; the crocodile denotes every sort 
of wickedness ; the eye marks an observer of justice, and 
everything that defends the body. Among other parts of the 
body, the right hand with the fingers extended expresses 
the abundance of the things necessary to life ; the left hand 
closed denotes economy and saving. It is nearly the same 
with the other parts, and with mechanical instruments. The 
Ethiopians investigate carefully the meaning of each of these 
figures, and fixing it in their memory by long application* 
understand at a glance what they are intended to represent. 
(Diodorus, lib. iii.) 

v. This passage appears to me to be a most important 
one. It is entirely in harmony with what is said by Hero- 
dotus on the same subject with respect to Egypt, and proves 
conclusively that two modes of writing, not alphabetical, 
existed in that country and in Ethiopia, and that they were 
such as are now perfectly familiar to us — the hieroglyphic 
proper, which consisted entirely of pictures, or representa- 
tions of material objects ; and the demotic, which was merely 
a simplified or contracted hieroglyphic, for the sake of de- 
spatch in the common affairs of life, but formed precisely on 
the same principle as the former, both being a real and not 
an alphabetical character, both the signs of things and not 
of sounds, and not one word about the Egyptian or Ethiopic 
alphabet being said either by Herodotus or Diodorus. The 
former probably, and the latter certainly, found the Greek 
alphabet in common use in Egypt (for with the exception of 
eight letters, the Coptic and Sahidic alphabet is entirely 
Greek, all the characters of the latter being found in it), but 
travellers remark and describe only that which is uncommon, 
and things with which they are perfectly familiar they 
imagine their readers must be. Where then are w T e to look 
for the origin of the Ethiopic and Amharic alphabets ? are 
they of a remote antiquity, or comparatively modern, in- 
vented or borrowed, indigenous or extraneous, and if the 
latter, from what quarter derived ? Sir William Jones says 
that many of the most ancient inscriptions in India exhibit a 
great resemblance to the writings of the Abyssinians ; this is 



AND GRAMMAR. 73 

a point on which I cannot speak ; I can only say that I cannot 
trace such a degree of similarity between the Devanagari cha- 
racters, and the Ethiopic or Amharic, as to induce me to 
adopt the conclusion that all were derived from some common 
origin. 

vi. The Ethiopians have twenty-six letters, and seven 
vowel sounds. Also five diphthongs, the combinations of 
which, however, are limited to four consonants, and denoted 
by appropriate signs, so that all the characters of the Ethiopic 
language are 202, viz. 26 letters combined with seven vowels, 
and four letters combined with five diphthongs. Some letters 
differ from each other in name and figure only, and by no 
means in pronunciation, or, in the language of grammarians, in 
power, though it is possible a real difference existed between 
them formerly, which has disappeared with time. For 
instance, there are three forms of H, two of S, three of Z, 
two of T, two of A, three of P, and two of K. 

I have already remarked, that the primary division of all 
alphabets ought to be into letters of two classes : not vowels 
and consonants between which there is frequently no real dif- 
ference, but into such as are the signs of elementary sounds 
which alone are real letters, and such as are merely contrac- 
tions in writing, or, in other words, the signs of the preceding 
signs. If we leave only one form of each of the above letters 
which have two or three expressions, we shall have to deduct 
ten, which will make the Ethiopic alphabet correspond very 
nearly with the ancient Greek. The Greek alphabet is said 
to contain twenty-four letters ; but of these three are aspirates 
or contractions in writing, to denote the combinations of H 
with another letter ; three double letters, that is, contractions 
for two letters ; and two long vowels, that is, contractions for 
two short vowels. After deducting these eight, we shall find 
only sixteen genuine letters, or signs of simple or elementary 
sounds, and Homer is said to have employed no more. It 
cannot be by accident that so many alphabets are capable of 
being resolved into about sixteen letters, or signs of elemen- 
tary sounds ; but on the contrary a presumption is raised, that 
speech is natural music, with an analogy more or less perfect 



74 THE ETHIOPIC LANGUAGE 

between the letters of the one and the notes and half notes of 
the other, which again have an analogy with the seven pri- 
mitive colours, as was first remarked, I believe, by Sir Isaac 
Xewton in his Optics. 

vii. " To the Ethiopic verb," says Ludolph, " belong qua- 
lity, conjugation, mode, tense, number, person, and gender." 
The last, as I have already remarked, is a leading charac- 
teristic of the Shemitic class of languages. 

In the Ethiopic language there are ten conjugations, dis- 
tinguished by their characteristic letters. 

In the fourth conjugation the A prefixed is causative, as in 
some Arabic verbs, and corresponds with the Hebrew conju- 
gation in Hiphil. 

The passive voice is formed from the active by prefixing T. 

Verbs have four modes — the indicative, the imperative, the 
subjunctive or optative, and the infinitive. They have no 
participle, but express it sometimes by the future, and some- 
times by the infinitive. 

Like the Hebrew, the Ethiopic has only two tenses — ■ the 
preterite, which is the root, and the future, which in the indi- 
dicative mode is also used for the present. 

The Ethiopic has only two numbers, singular and plural, 
without any dual ; and three genders, masculine, feminine, 
and common. 

Among the Ethiopians there are no compound verbs ; but 
the simple forms have the various significations of the Latin 
compounds. 

Adverbs are formed from nouns, by prefixing B, signifying 
in. 

viii. " In the Lexicon," says Ludolph, u we have fre- 
quently put a verb for the radical, although they appeared to 
be derived from nouns." I believe this observation might have 
been stated much more broadly. All verbs, and indeed all 
the other parts of speech, were originally simple nouns, and 
may be clearly proved to be so in many rude languages, espe- 
cially the Hebrew. The principal cause of the slow progress 
of philosophical grammar has been because philologists 
have sought for their illustrations in Greek and Latin solely, 



AND GRAMMAR. 75 

of all other languages the most improper, as being the most 
polished and cultivated, or, in other words, the most artificial 
and the most changed from their original state. In both 
instances the elaborate structures have been so carefully- 
finished as to efface every trace of the scaffolding by means of 
which they were raised. 

ix. I shall now proceed to make some remarks on the ety- 
mology of a few Ethiopic words. 

Ethiopic Words. Analogies. 

Hagary, Urbs, Civitas Agar (Sanskrit), a house. 

Lelity, Nox Laylat (Arabic), night. 

Hakyly, Ager Hakl (Arabic), a field. 

Hatat, Quaesivit Aiteo (Greek), to seek. 

Mahyzany, Matrix i. e. -J tt ^ st?A- • \ \ r 

J J ' ^Hyzany (Ethiopia), Infans. 

]STote. — Ma is found in many com- 
pound words both in Hebrew and Ethiopic, but never in a 
simple state. 
Myhyr, Misertus est Muhr (Persic), affection, kindness. 

Hear, A_.se i. e. { £$g$ &""*• 

Marya, Nuptiae Marry, English. 

Mawaz, Fructus also Arabic. 

, T . A f Ma (Arabic), water. 

Majy, Aqua | jj^ ^'^ 

Magabi, Pectus Qu,re{ ^J^^^ Commander 

{Ma (Coptic), Locus. 
Saryky, Ortus (Solis), Ethiopic. 
Mashrak (Arabic), the east. . 

Rasan, Ignescere Roskan (Persic), splendour. 

Nygusy, Rex The empire of Negus. Milton. 

Nagary, Sermo. 

Note. — This is a remarkable word as connected with some Sanskrit 
etymologies. Sir W. Jones says, the characters in which the languages 
of India were originally written are called Nagari, from Nagara, a city, 
with the word Deva sometimes prefixed, because they are believed to 
have been taught by the divinity himself, who prescribed the artificial order 
of them in a voice from heaven. The inscriptions at Canarah, of which 
you now possess a most accurate copy, seem to be compounded of Nagari 
(Sanskrit) and Ethiopic letters, which bear a close relation to each other, 
both in the mode of writing from the left hand, and in the singular 
manner of connecting the vowels with the consonants. (Works, vol. iii. 
p. 35.) If Deva-Nagari, in Sanskrit, ever really signified the language 
of the Gods, the second word was certainly the Ethiopic Nagary ; but if 
Nagari is formed from Nagara, a city, Deva may be a corruption of the 
Hebrew Dabar, or Davar, speech. The Sanskrit R is peculiarly liable 
to accidents. 



76 THE ETHIOPIC LANGUAGE 

Ethiopic Wof^ds. Analogies. 

Am, Cum Ama (Greek). 

Amiry, Dies Emera (Greek). 

Arab, Occubuit. 

A i r\ or f Ereb (Hebrew), evening. 

Araby, Occasus Solis ( 3^ (Greek £ ^^ 

Dabela, Taurus Jeremiah, xlviii. 22. Beth-Dibla- 

thairu. Perhaps the house of the Bull, from being consecrated 
to Osiris, like Beth Meon, the house of the Sun, and Ashteroth 
Karnaim, the city of the horned Astarte or Isis. 

Daphan, Abscondit sub terrain Dafn (Arabic), burying. 

Bahamy, Mutus » Abham (Arabic), dumb. 

Derivative, Behaimah (Hebrew), a quadruped, from being dumb, 

in opposition to man, who possesses the power of speech, or of 

forming articulate sounds. Merops is frequently used by 

Homer in connexion with Anthropos, as peculiarly character- 

of the human race. 

Phales, or Palas, Perio-rinare, Mi- ] t,, . , c T , • 

grai 4 . ° mm ... \ Pola, a city of Istria. 

Polas inde Colchi vocarunt urbem ^vyadiov. Strabo, lib. i. 
Hadasy, Nova Chadashah (Hebrew). 

Hadasa, Esther, i. e. Nova (Sponsa), J AU >***> ******** a » d ^chylus, if 
p +1 •• 7 -\ Ahasuerus is Darius Hystaspes, 

' i as I believe. 

rwi 
\ Wi 

x. Such is a short account of the Ethiopic as exhibited by 
Ludolph and compared with the languages of Asia. It is 
clearly of the family denominated by philologists Shemitic, 
appears to be little more than a dialect of the Hebrew, and, 
indeed, has so much in common with it, that in many 
respects it would seem to be the Hebrew itself, merely- 
written in another character. In fact, the term Chaldee has 
been applied to the Ethiopic, as we are informed on the best 
of all possible authorities, that of the distinguished scholar to 
whom we are indebted for almost all that we can be said to 
know of it. Ludolph says, " Cur autem hasc nostra JEthiopica 
lingua Chaldrea a quibusdam appellata fuerit, nee Ethiops 
mens dicere poterat, nee ego conjicere possum." (Lexicon, 
p. 292.) The coincidences between the Hebrew and 
Ethiopic are so close and numerous, that if our account of 
the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt were one jot less au- 
thentic than it is, we should be tempted to look for the land 
of Goshen, not in the north of Egypt, but in the extreme 



TVila (Persic), time. 

Waal, diem transegit «{ Wilah, or Vilah (Sanskrit), time 

While (English). 



AND GEAMMAR. 77 

south, in Ethiopia ; and to conjecture that the Jews crossed 
the Red Sea from necessity, because they were at such an 
enormous distance from the Isthmus of Suez, while, situated 
as we understand they were, it appears to have been a matter 
of choice, for which it is difficult to account. The value of 
the Ethiopic version, like that of others, must depend on the 
antiquity and correctness of the Greek MSS-, from which it 
was made, and the degree of talent and fidelity with which 
it was executed ; but with respect to the language itself, I 
can give a positive opinion that there is little curious about 
it, and that it cannot be expected to throw much light on the 
origin of Sanskrit and the other languages and dialects of 
India, though some characters and words appear to have been 
common to Ethiopia and Hindustan at a remote period, and I 
would recommend no scholar to learn Ethiopic, with the hope 
of advancing the cause of knowledge, or immortalizing 
himself by unfolding the Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin of the 
long-buried inscriptions of Canara or Ellora. 



78 



CHAP. IX. 



ON THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE OR THE EASTERN AND WESTERN 

ARAMEAN. 



" Here Nineveh of length within her wall 
Several days' journey, built by .Ninus old, 
Of that first golden monarchy the seat, 
And seat of Salmanassar, whose success 
Israel in long captivity still mourns ; 
There Babylon the wonder of all tongues, 
As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice 
Judah and all thy father David's house 
Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste 
Till Cyrus set them free." Paradise Regained, book iii. 

I. Of the language of Assyria, as distinct from Syriac and 
Chaldee, we cannot be said to know any thing. The Greek 
writers make no distinction between Assyria and Syria, and 
in the Old Testament (2 Kings, xviii. 26.) Syriac is spoken 
of as the native tongue of Rabshakeh, the general of Senna- 
cherib, and in Daniel, ii. 4., the Chaldeans, or Magi of 
Babylon, are described as addressing Nebuchadnezzar in 
Syriac. The Shemitic, in some form or other, seems to have 
been spoken in Western Asia from the earliest ages, certainly 
from the Tigris, perhaps from the Indus, to the Mediterranean, 
and from the shores of the Pacific to the great mountain 
chain of Taurus; for the Pehlvi, or ancient language of 
Persia, from the little we know of it, appears to have more 
analogy with the Chaldee than any other language we are 
acquainted with. 

ii. Adelung gives the following words as specimens of the 
Syriac, Assyrian, Chaldee, and Samaritan. 

1. Syriac, - — Shemaio, heaven, — Aro, and Areto, earth. 

2. Assyrian, — Simmi, heaven, — Dinii, earth. 

3. Chaldee, — Shemaia, heaven, — Ara, and Arga, earth. 

4. Samaritan, — Samia, heaven, — Aroa, earth. (Sup. 
Ency. Brit. art. Language.) 



THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE. 79 

The Chalclee and Syriac are so much alike, that they 
appear to be almost the same language written in different 
characters. The names of the numerals in both languages 
are almost exactly alike as to letters, and vary only in the 
vowel points. The learned translator of Michaelis says he 
has been able to discover very little difference between the 
Syriac and the Chalclee. We possess numerous works in 
both languages, of which the most interesting and important 
are two translations of the New Testament in Syriac. 
The oldest, which is by some supposed to have been made 
in the first century of the Christian era, is denominated 
the Peshito, or literal, though Michaelis says it is far from 
being so literal as the more recent version. He describes 
it as follows: — u The Peshito is the very best translation of 
the Greek Testament that I have ever read; that of Luther, 
though in some respects inferior to his translation of the 
Old Testament, holding the second rank. Of all the Syriac 
authors with which I am acquainted, not excepting Ephrem 
and Bar Hebrseus, its language is the most elegant and pure, 
not loaded with foreign words, like the Philoxenian version 
and other later writings, and discovers the hand of a master 
in rendering those passages where the two idioms deviate 
from each other. It has no marks of the stiffness of a 
translation, but is written with the ease and fluency of an 
original ; and this excellence of style must be ascribed to its 
antiquity, and to its being written in a city that was the 
residence of Syrian kings." (Marsh's Michaelis, ii. 40.) 

in. The Philoxenian, or new Syriac version derives its 
name from Philoxenus, otherwise Xenayas, Bishop of Hiera- 
polis, or Mabug, from the year 488 to 518, an account of 
whose life and writings may be seen in Asseman. But 
Philoxenus was only the patron of the work, and not the 
translator, the task being executed by Polycarp, his rural 
bishop, in the year 508. Michaelis characterizes it as under 
— " The intrinsic worth of the Philoxenian version admits of 
no comparison with that of the Peshito ; the style is much 
inferior and more difficult to be understood, the version is 
less accurate, and the translator was less acquainted with 



80 THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE. 

the Greek ; it is neither so valuable to a divine for the pur- 
pose of instruction in the Christian religion, nor to the 
learned expositor as a means of explaining difficult and 
doubtful passages. But the version is not devoid of value, 
and is of real importance to a critic, whose object is to select 
a variety of readings, with a view of restoring the genuine 
text of the Greek original, for he may be assured that every 
phrase and expression is a precise copy of the Greek text, as 
it stood in the manuscript from which the version was made. 
But as it is not prior to the sixth century, and the Peshito 
was written at the end of the first, or the beginning of the 
second century, it is of less importance to know the readings 
of the Greek manuscript that was used in the former, than 
those of the original employed in the latter." (Marsh's 
Michaelis, vol. ii. p. 67.) 

iv. If I were required to produce an Assyrian word, and 
at the same time positively to affirm that it is neither 
Chaldee nor Syriac, I should be considerably puzzled. The 
nearest approximation I can make to it, is by noticing a 
highly curious passage Avhich occurs, 2 Kings, xviii. 17. 
When Sennacherib the king of Assyria invaded Judaea in 
the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, he besieged 
Lachish in person, and sent some of his officers against 
Jerusalem, " and the king of Assyria sent Tartan, and Bab- 
saris, and Babshakeh, from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a 
great host against Jerusalem." Now these are not personal 
names, but the names of offices, and we find one of them 
occurring again in Jeremiah, xxxix. 3., Bab-saris together 
with Bab-mag. The signification of Bab -saris is great, or 
chief eunuch ; of Bab-shakeh, great, or chief elder ; and of 
Bab-mag, great, or chief Magian. In Daniel, i. 3., Bab Has- 
sarisim is translated master of the eunuchs, and in verse 7. of 
the same chapter we find the nearly equivalent expression Sar 
Hassarisim, prince of the eunuchs ; and in Jeremiah, xxxix. 3., 
Bab-mag is rendered in Gibbs's Gesenius the chief Magian. 
Judging from analogy, there can be little doubt that the name 
of Tartan is significant, and I believe it to be formed from the 
two Persic words Tar, dark or black, and Tan, body or person, 



THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE. 81 

and have little doubt that Tartan was chief of the black 
eunuchs, a personage of great importance to this day in the 
seraglios of Teheran and Constantinople, as Rab-saris was of 
the white eunuchs. The only Syriac word I can find for 
eunuch in SchafFs Lexicon, is Mahimno fidelis, which is 
clearly not literal, no more than Soricho, which I observe in 
Gibbs's Gesenius, and which evidently means no more than 
overseer. Saris appears to be primarily an Arabic word, and 
is found as such in Richardson's Dictionary, as also is Sheik, 
with the meaning of elder and chief. Mag is Persic, and 
signifies fire-worshipper, from which the Greeks, by adding 
a termination of their own, formed Magus. From this 
single specimen the language spoken in Assyria, at that 
period, would appear to have been a very mixed one. In 
the same chapter of Kings (xviii. 26.) we find Rab-shakeh 
addressing the Jews on the walls of Jerusalem in Hebrew, 
while the elders desire him to speak in the Syrian language, 
as they understand it. But the common Jews did not 
understand it, so that there must have been an essential 
difference between the Syriac (Chaldee) and the Hebrew be- 
fore the Babylonish captivity. After that event the Hebrew 
ceased to be a spoken language, and parts of the books of 
Daniel and Ezra are written in Chaldee, which the Jews are 
inferred to have acquired on the other side of the Euphrates, 
and at the period of the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, 
the Syriac of the Peshito, or old version, is supposed to have 
been the common language of Palestine. 

v. We cannot be said to know any language which we 
have reason to regard as peculiar to ancient Assyria except 
the Chaldee, and in his grammars of that tongue, the Syriac, 
and the Samaritan, Masclef says, that in the gender and 
number of nouns, and the modes, tenses, and conjugations of 
verbs, they do not differ in any essential respect from the 
Hebrew. 



82 



CHAP. X. 

ON THE PHOENICIAN AND PUNIC LANGUAGES. 



" Urbs antiqua fuit, Tyrii tenuere coloni, 
Carthago, Italiam contra, Tiberinaque longe 
Ostia, dives opum, studiisque asperrima belli; 
Quam Juno fertur terris magis omnibus unam 
Posthabita coluisse Samo. .... 

Dux foemina facti. 
Devenere locos, ubi nunc ingentia cernes 
Moenia, surgentemque novae Carthaginis arcem : 
Mercatique solum, facti de nomine Byrsam, 
Taurino quantum possent circumdare tergo." 

Virg. JEneid. i. 12—16. 365—369. 



I. Though the Phoenicians have acted so conspicuous a 
part in the history of the world, traded with every region of 
the globe, founded important colonies in several, enlarged 
the boundaries of our geographical knowledge, and taken the 
lead in fitting out expeditions for the purpose of maritime 
discovery, it is astonishing how very little we really know 
of their origin, advancement, language, literature, arts, or 
sciences. 

II. Herodotus says that the Phoenicians, by their own 
account, once inhabited the coasts of the Red Sea; but 
migrated thence to the maritime parts of Syria, all w T hich 
district, as far as Egypt, is denominated Palestine (lib. vii. 
c. 89.). We should have been indebted to the father of 
history if he had been more communicative on this point ; 
but, perhaps, he did not possess the means of being so. The 
first question that arises, however, is, Did the Phoenicians 
who migrated into Palestine confer that name on it ? The 
etymology appears to be Pali (Sanskrit), a shepherd*, and 

* Genesis, xlvii. 3. " And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is 
your occupation ? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are 
shepherds, both we, and also our fathers." 



ON THE PHOENICIAN AND PUNIC LANGUAGES. 83 

Stana (Sanskrit), a place* ; and if this be admitted, it can 
hardly be denied, that the Philistines of the Old Testament 
and the Phoenicians were the same people. We shall now 
feel disposed to take Herodotus's expression, " coasts of the 
Red Sea," in the most comprehensive sense; and we know 
that the Greek and Roman geographers comprised under 
that term the Persian Gulf, as well as what we now under- 
stand by the Red Sea. With this extension of the meaning 
of the word, there is no difficulty in accounting for terms of 
Persic or Indian etymology. 

in. That part of the prophecies of Isaiah, which describes 
the fate of Tyre (chap, xxiii. 13.), contains a passage which is 
deserving of very particular attention — "Behold the land of 
the Chaldeans: this people (Tyre) was not, till the Assyrians 
founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they (the 
Assyrians) set up the towers thereof, they raised up the pa- 
laces thereof; and he (the Lord) brought it to ruin." This 
account is substantially the same as that of Herodotus, and 
it is important in no common degree, because if Tyre was 
an Assyrian colony, the basis of their language must have 
been essentially Chaldee, as well as that of their descendant 
Carthage, with, perhaps, a strong infusion of Persic and 
Sanskrit words derived from the extreme east of Assyria. 
The motives which may have induced the Assyrian monarchs 
to establish such a settlement as Tyre are obvious enough. 
The commodities of India, after being conveyed up the 
Tigris and Euphrates, may have found their way to Tyre 
through the central station of Palmyra, and the produce of 
Europe and the coasts of the Mediterranean may have been 
transported to Babylon through the same channel. 

iy. One objection to this view of the origin of Tyre arises 
from the very remote antiquity which Herodotus ascribes to 
that city. He says it was founded two thousand three 
hundred years before his own time ; a period which, if not 

* Richardson, in his Persic Dictionary, says, " Stan is a termination 
much used in the names of countries and places, both in Persia and India ; 
and seems of Sanskrit origin, in which language it signifies a place or 
station." 

G 2 



84 ON THE PHOENICIAN 

altogether fabulous, is at least long prior to the existence of 
anything like authentic and credible history. Diodorus, how- 
ever, in connexion with the chronology of Egypt informs us, 
that in the early periods of their history, they were supposed 
to have confounded revolutions of the moon and the sun, or 
months and years ; an error which appears to have pervaded 
every part of ancient history, and enables us in many 
instances to correct its extravagancies ; and if we apply this 
test to the foundation of Tyre, and divide the two thou- 
sand three hundred by twelve, we shall obtain a result 
which will bring that event within the historical period of 
the Assyrian Empire, which Sir Isaac Newton declared 
himself unable to carry farther back than about eight hun- 
dred years before the Christian era. 

v. Lanzi, in his Essay on Etruria, says, that the cogni- 
zance, or armorial bearing, of the Phoenicians was a palm 
tree (torn. ii. p< 58.). Did they take this cognizance 
because the palm tree (<3>otVif) was peculiar to, or at any 
rate the produce of, their country ; or because Edom in 
Hebrew and Phoenix in Greek signifies red ; because they 
were Idumeans as described by Herodotus, and because the 
palm was a type or play on their name? In Hebrew, 
Shittim signifies cedars; and Shit, an oar, probably from 
being made of that wood. In Micah, vi. 5., Balaam is said 
to have answered Balak from Shittim unto Gilgal. Gilgal 
was on the borders of Moab ; and was Shittim Phoenicia, or 
the land of cedars? If we suppose the word ever to 
have been written with the Persic Chim (ch) which is soft, 
by a change of the diacritical points, it would become hard, 
and be converted into Chittim, or Kittim. In Genesis, x. 
4, 5., we read, "And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, 
Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the 
Gentiles divided in their lands : every one after his tongue, 
after their families, in their nations." The Septuagint, in 
many passages, have rendered Tarshish by Karkedon, 
Carthage ; and in the above, instead of Dodanim, they read 
Bodioi, Bhodians ; and if Shittim, or Kittim, signified Phoe- 
nicians, we shall have the names of three of the most enter- 



AND PUNIC LANGUAGES. 85 

prising commercial people of antiquity. The Hebrew 
letters Daleth and Raish (cl and r) are easily mistaken for 
each other, as I have already remarked ; and the Septuagint 
have so mistaken them by reading Rodioi for Dodanim ; and 
by a similar mistake in the second Daleth of Dodanim, we 
should have a reading of Doranim, Dorians. The oldest forms 
of Delta and Rho in Greek are also very easily mistaken. 

VI. While, on the authority of the Greek authors, we are 
accustomed to ascribe the invention of alphabetical characters 
to the Phoenicians, and their introduction into Greece to 
Cadmus, we are without any very precise information as to 
the form or number of those letters. The letters of the Sa- 
maritan alphabet, in which the Pentateuch in that language is 
commonly printed, are generally denominated Phoenician, 
though on what authority it is not very easy to say, as many 
of the medals ascribed to the Tyrians and Carthaginians have 
legends in Hebrew or Chaldee characters (vide Gibbs's 
Gesenius, in voce Canaan). The most convincing argument 
to my own mind is, that there is a pretty close general 
agreement between the Phoenician, Punic, and Siculo-Punic 
alphabet published in Dutens' Medals, and the Samaritan 
alphabet, as given in Masclef's grammar. Herodotus is, 
perhaps, our best authority, and what he says on the subject 
is far from being conclusive. He informs us that the Phoe- 
nicians who came with Cadmus, and of whom the Gephy- 
reans formed a part, introduced during their residence in 
Greece various articles of science, and among other things, 
letters, with which the historian conceives the Greeks were 
previously unacquainted. They were at first such as the 
Phoenicians themselves used, but which, in process of time, 
underwent changes both in sound and form. At that time 
the Greeks most contiguous to this people were the lonians 
(of Asia Minor), who learned these letters of the Phoenicians, 
and with some trifling variations, received them into common 
use. As the Phoenicians first made them known in Greece, 
the Greeks, as justice demanded, denominated them Phoe- 
nician letters. I myself have seen, says the historian, in the 
temple of the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes of Boeotia these 

G 3 



86 ON THE PHOENICIAN 

Cadmean letters inscribed on some tripods, and having a near 
resemblance to those used by the Ionians (Herodotus, lib. v. 
cc. 58, 59.). 

vu. On the same subject Diodorus has the following ob- 
servations : — Cadmus made presents to the Lindian Mi- 
nerva at Rhodes, among which is a superb caldron of gold, 
of an ancient form. On it is seen an inscription in those 
original Phoenician characters, which are said to have been 
brought from Phoenicia into Greece. With regard to those 
who say that the Syrians are the inventors of letters, which 
they communicated to the Phoenicians, which the latter 
brought into Greece when they followed Cadmus in his 
passage into Europe, and which for that reason were de- 
nominated Phoenician, we reply to them, that the Syrians 
were not really the inventors of letters, and that even the 
term Phoenician, which the Greeks applied to letters, was not 
because the Phoenicians invented them, but rather because 
they substituted for their ancient form, another form which 
has been more generally adopted. 

viii. On an attentive review of the whole of the evidence 
I have been able to collect on the subject, I cannot discover 
a single definite and well-authenticated fact, tending to 
confer on the Phoenicians the honour of being the inventors 
of alphabetical characters. Cadmus is a mere creation of 
mythology, resolvable into the Hebrew word Kedem, the east, 
and Phoenician is used by Greek authors so loosely, as to be 
almost equivalent to Oriental ; and while there can be no 
doubt that the Greek alphabet generally was borrowed from 
Asia, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to assign particular 
letters to any particular Asiatic people. That several letters 
of the Egyptian, Hebrew, Phoenician, and Shemitic lan- 
guages generally, owed their origin to the real characters of 
China, appears to me to be proved beyond the possibility of 
doubt, as the letters agree with the Chinese in name, form, 
and power. , We have just seen that Herodotus describes the 
characters of the Boeotian inscriptions, as being like the Ionic 
letters of his own time ; a circumstance extremely unfavour- 
able to their genuineness and remote, antiquity, and con- 



AND PUNIC LANGUAGES. 87 

elusive against their being of the age of Cadmus. It is quite 
clear that the Ionians of Asia Minor could not have been in 
a situation to borrow letters from the Phoenicians, until they 
became their neighbours, a circumstance which did not 
happen until Ionia was colonized from Greece, in the year 
B. c. 1044, nearly 450 years after the pretended -arrival of 
Cadmus in Greece, and from Asia Minor we derive that 
inscription, the Sigsean, which is generally regarded as the 
oldest in existence, and beyond which we cannot argue from 
experience as to the forms of the Greek letters. ^< 

ix. Whatever we may think of the entertaining story by 
which the Greek and Roman writers endeavour to account 
for the Carthaginian word Byrsa, the term is a perfectly 
genuine one, and we are informed by Strabo, that the 
citadel, or Acropolis, continued to bear that name in his 
time (Lib. xvii). The Tyrian colonists, whether conducted 
by Dido or not, arrived on the coast of Africa, and requested 
of the natives, not, I imagine, as is related by the Greek 
historians who understood no language but their own, as 
much ground as they could inclose with a bull's hide (Bursa, 
Greek), but sufficient ground to erect a fortification, Burj 
(Arabic) or Bariz (Arabic), that which is stretched out or ex- 
tended, or Barsa (Persic), that which is done in haste, perhaps 
a breast- work or field-work. The request, I have no doubt, 
was made in that singular spirit of moderation, which has 
almost invariably marked all the transactions of civilized with 
savage nations ; they merely desired sufficient ground to con- 
struct a fortress, that was their only wish, and well it might 
be, for that being complied with, the next assumed the 
shape of a positive command. The Greek story says that 
they bargained for as much ground as they could cover with 
a bull's hide, and then proceeded to inclose as much as they 
could circumscribe with the narrowest strips or thongs, and 
this is probably very true, or at any rate an excellent spe- 
cimen of the spirit in which such negotiations have been 
conducted by almost all colonists, except the humane and 
honest William Penn ; but we may rest assured, that it was 
not the first step, but the second ; and that this earliest 

G 4 



88 ON THE PHOENICIAN 

exhibition on record of Punica Fides, was not made until 
the citadel was completely finished, and all the resources of 
force were at hand to defend and execute the contrivances of 
fraud. 

x. All that can be said on the subject of the language and 
literature of Carthage, will occupy a very limited space. It 
would be more easy to fill a volume with what we conjecture, 
than a page with what we know. There appear to be his- 
torical grounds for admitting that Carthage was a Phoenician 
colony ; but the obscurity which we have to encounter with 
respect to the language of the mother country, still pursues 
us in any inquiry we undertake into that of the descendant. 
We have strong reasons for believing, that the Punic lan- 
guage was a branch of the Shemitic ; but to what dialect of 
that extensive family it approximated most closely we cannot 
say, and it may be doubted if there are sufficient materials 
in existence for determining. Its remains are both scanty 
and dubious ; and with respect to the little we can be said to 
possess, there are two sources of uncertainty which it is ex- 
tremely difficult to get over, and which apply equally to the 
Phoenician. The roots in most of the Shemitic lanormores 
are the same, and the termination must decide whether any 
particular word is to be regarded as Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldee, 
Syriac, or Samaritan. Our knowledge of the few Phoenician 
and Punic words we possess, is derived from the Greeks and 
Romans, who have altered them in two ways, first by the 
addition of their own terminations, and second^ by inserting 
the vowels agreeably to the genius of their respective lan- 
guages, so that it is hardly possible we should ever determine 
with any tolerable certainty which of the known dialects of 
the Shemitic, the Phoenician and Punic most closely re- 
sembled. Philologists have not been able to settle the 
etymology of the name of Carthage itself, to their entire 
satisfaction ; some suggest Kir (Hebrew), city ; and Hadath, 
or Cbadath (Chaldee), new ; which is very little like the 
Latin Carthago, and very near to the Greek Karchedon, if 
w^e could account for the change of the final th of the Chaldee 
word, into the n of the Greek. I believe Carthage to be 



AND PUNIC LANGUAGES. 89 

simply the Hebrew Kirjath, city, with the second syllable 
transposed, or reversed, thaj, and I am confirmed in this 
opinion by the etymology of Carthagena. It is more certain 
that the Carthaginians founded Carthagena, than that the 
Phoenicians founded Carthage, and we are quite sure that 
Carthagena meant New Carthage*, as it is so explained both 
by Polybius and Livy. The termination Na, then, is the 
Persic Nu or Nou, new ; and Carthage, the Hebrew Kir- 
jath, with the second syllable transposed — Carthage, the city 
emphatically, or the metropolis ; Carthagena or Carthage, 
No or Nu, the New City founded in Spain by Asdrubal. 

XI. Kirchaclashah. In Dutens' Medals, Plate ii. No. 8., is 
one which he assigns either to Palermo or Carthage, with a 
legend in Phoenician or Samaritan characters, which he does 
not attempt to decipher, but which appears to me to prove 
conclusively that the medal ought to be assigned neither to 
Palermo nor Carthage, but to Carthagena or the New City. 

n Kappa (K), Ancient Greek, Dutens ; and no doubt 
Phoenician also. 

p Rho (R) „ „ „ 

Heth (CH) Phoenician, Dutens. 

Q Daleth (D) 

W Schin(SH) „ 

8 He (H) 
By reading the above letters from right to left we have the 
two Hebrew words, Kir city, and Chadashah, new. 

Hanno. This proper name is generally referred to the 
Hebrew Chain, grace, favour, the word Baal, Lord, being 
understood. The Carthaginians appear to have written the 
word with Hay (h), the Hebrews with the stronger aspirate 
Heth (Ch). The Syriac form of the word, however, Chanono, 

* The Greeks appear to have denominated Carthage, Karchedon 
(Kapxr)do>> ), i.e. New City, with reference to Tyre, the metropolis, or 
mother city, and the Carthaginians themselves to have named Carthagena 
with reference to Carthage. " Etiam altera Carthagine, quae Nova appel- 
lata est," in sinu maris juxta portum amplissimum, et satis conmiodum, 
condita. (Frainshem. Sup. ad Liv. Hist. lib. xx. c. 21.) 



90 ON THE PHOENICIAN AND PUNIC LANGUAGES. 

approximates most closely to the Punic. Reading the Ch as 
H, and omitting the first O, it becomes Hanno, as written 
by the Romans. Hannibal is evidently the same word with 
the addition of the Hebrew Baal, Lord, a name of the sun, 
and identical with Hercules, the tutelary god both of Tyre 
and Carthage. 

Hasdrubal appears to be the Hebrew Chesed, grace, 
favour, but with a mixture of Persic, the Ru being probably 
the Persic Ra, the mark of the oblique case, with Baal 
(Hebrew), as in the preceding words, which we ought to 
translate the sun. 

Adherbal. I should say certainly the Persic Azar, fire, the 
second letter being converted into d, by dropping the dia- 
critical point. Azar in Persic also signifies the god of the 
worshippers of fire, the sun. Adherbal is nearly synony- 
mous with Adrammelek, mentioned 2 Kings xvii. 31., the 
first word signifying Lord of Fire, and the second King of 
Fire, and both being names of the sun. 

Maharbal. Here again I should say that the first word is 
certainly Persic, Mihr, love, and the signification of the 
whole name, the love or favour of Baal, or the sun. 

Not a single work in the Punic language has come down 
to us. Mago, a Carthaginian general, is said to have 
written a voluminous treatise on husbandry, which the 
Romans caused to be translated ; but the translation has 
shared the fate of the original. Of the Periplus of Hanno, 
which was translated into Greek, we possess some consider- 
able fragments. 



91 



CHAP. XL 

ON THE ARABIC LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR, 



" As when to them who sail 
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past 
Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow 
Sabean odour from the spicy shore 
Of Araby the Blest; with such delay 
Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league 
Cheer'd with the grateful smell, Old Ocean smiles." 

Paradise Lost, book iv. 



I. It is difficult to conceive that the Arabic language was 
originally written with the number of letters it now contains, 
simply from the circumstance that the characters of the 
alphabet having been primarily the signs or representatives 
of the elementary sounds of the human voice, and those 
simple sounds not exceeding about sixteen in what is 
regarded as the primitive Greek alphabet, a greater number 
of characters would have been superfluous ; consequently all 
above that number are not distinct letters, but merely 
various forms of the same letter, or mere contractions for the 
sake of dispatch in writing ; that is to say, double or treble 
letters. The analogy is so close between the Arabic and 
the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan, that there is a 
high degree of probability that the alphabet of the former 
originally corresponded with those of the latter. (Erpenius, 
cura Schultens, p. 323.) 

II. Sir William Jones says, " Of the characters in which 
the old compositions in Arabic were written we know but 
little, except that the Koran originally appeared in those of 
Cufah, from which the modern Arabian letters with all their 
elegant variations were derived ; and which, unquestionably, 
had a common origin with the Hebrew or Chaldaic : but as 
to the Himyarick letters, or those which we see mentioned 



92 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE 

by the name of Almusnad, we are still in total darkness, the 
traveller Mebuhr having been unfortunately prevented from 
visiting some ancient monuments in Yemen, which are said 
to have inscriptions on them." (Works, vol. iii. p. 55.) 

The Arabic alphabet at present used consists of twenty- 
eight letters ; but as each of these letters has three forms 
according as it is initial, medial, or final, it may be said to 
contain eighty-four characters, besides the three vowel points, 
Fatha, Kesra, and Damma. 

in. Nouns are of two genders, masculine and feminine. 
The names of women, of cities, and of regions are feminine, 
in this respect agreeing with the Latin. Nouns in Arabic 
have three numbers, singular, dual, and plural ; and three 
cases, nominative, genitive, and accusative. 

iv. The verb, says Savary in his Arabic Grammar, is the 
word, emphatically and par excellence ; and as it is the soul 
of discourse, expresses all the actions which creatures ex- 
ercise on each other, and describes all the feelings of the 
human heart. In proportion as the composition of the verb 
is more or less perfect, the brevity and energy of language 
will be greater or less ; and the Arabs who, for many ages, 
have taken much pains to polish their language, have suc- 
ceeded in giving to this part of speech an astonishing degree 
of perfection. Without the help of prepositions and adverbs, 
which the poverty of the languages of modern Europe has 
pressed into the service of the verb, the Arabs have paid so 
much attention to its formation, that by the aid of some 
characteristic letters they are able to render with precision 
the finest shades of our sensations, and to follow the widest 
excursions of thought. The following instances may be 
cited in support of this assertion : — 

v. The French have only the verb Aimer to express love, 
while that passion has innumerable degrees of strength, and 
is more or less tender or ardent, timid or violent, according 
to the nature of the soul in which it inheres. To express 
these various degrees the European languages are constrained 
to make use of adverbs, such as More, Most, Tenderly, Pas- 
sionately, which at once encumber and weaken speech. The 
Arabs have recourse to other expedients, employing the 



AND GRAMMAR. 93 

verb Ahobb, I love, to express love simply: and Achak, he has 
burned with love, to paint the excess of that passion. And 
by the aid of characteristic letters they are enabled to render 
verbs reciprocal or reflective, or to extend their signification 
at pleasure. By adding Elif (a) to the commencement of the 
root we shall have Aachak, he has caused to burn with love. 
By prefixing Te (t) to the first radical letter, and adding Elif 
(a) after it, we shall have Taachek, they have burned with 
love one for the other. By prefixing the three letters Ast to 
the root, we have Estachak, he has desired that they should 
burn in love for him. A glance is sufficient to convince us 
how much energy and precision may be given to language 
by the use of these simple means, which enable us to dispense 
with the periphrases and circumlocutions of modern tongues. 
By studying Arabic we cannot fail to perceive how feeble 
and poor the French, though the predominant language of 
Europe, is, as compared with it, the only really ancient 
language which can be said not to be extinct, as it has 
always been spoken by a proud people who have never 
bowed their necks beneath the yoke of servitude. (Grani- 
maire Arabe par Savary (Langles), pp. 26, 27, 28.) 

vi. The simple regular verb, the root of which consists of 
three letters, is divided into six conjugations, besides which 
there are thirteen of compounds which add one, two, or three 
letters to the root, and give it a sense, transitive, intransitive, 
neuter, common, and reciprocal. (Savary, pp. 30 — 33.) The 
passive voice differs from the active in the vowel points only, 
the radical letters being the same in both, and as these are 
rarely written in Arabic, except in the Koran, and in poetical 
compositions, the two voices must be inferred from that 
which precedes and follows. (Savary, p. 65.) 

vn. Though Albert Schultens, the editor and commen- 
tator on Erpenius, has pointed out, at considerable length, 
many close analogies between the Arabic and the Hebrew, 
I do not remember that he has noticed in the former lan- 
guage a causative form corresponding with the Hebrew verb 
in Hiphil, and yet there can be no doubt that it abounds in 
the language, and nothing is less equivocal than its nature. 
Savary has pointed out its existence, though not in the mode 



94 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE 

in which I have remarked it. In his account of the conju- 
gation of the irregular verb Rai, he saw, he says, that by 
compounding it, by prefixing Elif (a) Arai, it signifies he 
showed. Now, it is quite obvious in this case, and probably 
many others, that the Arabic Elif (a) has precisely the power 
of the Hebrew Hay (h). In the latter language we have 

Raah, he saw. 

Hirah, he showed, i. e. he caused to see. 
Arabic — Rai, he saw. 

Arai, he showed, i. e. he caused to see. 

(Savary, p. 199.) 

viii. Bat I wish to direct the attention of my reader to 
that very large class of words in the Arabic Lexicon, which 
are converted into causatives, with the powder of the Hebrew 
verb in Hiphil by prefixing Ta (t) to the first, and inter- 
posing le (i) between the second and third radical letters. 

Takhlif, appointing a substitute, i. e. to cause to succeed. Root, Khalf, 

a successor. 
Tadaklikkul, being introduced. Root, Dakhl, entering. 

Note. — ■ Though the I is omitted, I have no doubt of the origin of 

the word. 
Tazhib, gilding. Root, Zahab, gold. 
Tarkim, writing. Root, Rakm, a letter. 
Tasmia, ordering one to listen. Root, Sama, hearing ; Hebrew, Shama, 

to hear, in Hiphil Hiskmia, to cause to hear ; the Arabic Ti causative, 

corresponding to the Hebrew Hi. 
Tashrib, giving to drink. Root, Shurb, drink. 
Tashmir, diligence, care. Root, Shamar (Hebrew), to keep watch, guard, 

with T causative before the first, and I interposed between the second 

and third radical, to cause to guard. 
Tashmis, exposing to the sun. Root, Shems, the sun. 
Tasdik, confirming. Root, Sidk, truth, i. e. to cause or prove to be 

truth, cognate with the Hebrew Tsedek, truth. 
Tasaid, raising up. Root, Saad, high. 
Xasghir, diminution. Root, Saghar, small. 
Tasfir, making pale. Root, Safar. 
Taslib, crucifying. Root, Salb. 
Tazmir, making lean. Root, Zamr. 
Tataim, giving to taste. Root, Taam. 
Tazfir, making one to conquer. Root, Zafar, victory. 
Taabid, reducing to slavery. Root, Aabd, a slave. 
Taatim, delaying. Root, Aatm, slow. 
Taadid, causing to be numbered. Root, Add, number. 
Taadil, rectifying, adjusting. Root, Aadal, justice. 



AND GRAMMAR. 95 

Taarif, explanation. Root, Aurf, knowledge. 

Taghmid, concealing. Root Ghimd, a sheath, i. e. to cause to cover. 

Taf'rih, rejoicing. Root, Farah, gladness. 

Tafhim, teaching, instructing. Root, Fahm, understanding. 

Takbir, causing to bury. Root, Kabr, a tomb ; Hebrew, Keber, a grave ; 

i Kabar, to bury. 

Takrib, approaching. Root, Kurb, approach. 

Talbis, covering, clothing. Root, Libs, a garment. 

Talsin, teaching. Root, Lisan, the tongue, i. e. to cause to repeat. 

Talmiz, or Talmid, a scholar. Root, Lamad (Hebrew), to learn, in 

Hiphil, Hilmid, he caused to learn, i. e. he taught, the Arabic Ti causa- 
tive having the force of the Hebrew Hi. 
Tanzil, revelation from heaven, the Alcoran. Root, Nazi, descending. 

Tanzil, that which divine knowledge causes to descend from heaven. 
Note. — The Hebrew verb Nazal, to run, to flow, appears in some 

instances to have the signification to descend. 
Tawfid, sending. Root, Wafd, coming, i. e. to cause to come. 
Tawlid, procreating. Root, Walad, a son, offspring ; Hebrew, Yalad, to 

bring forth, in Hiphil, Holid, the Arabic Ti causative corresponding 

with the Hebrew Hi. 
Tawin, despising, slighting. Root, Hawn, contempt. 
Tahlil, praising God, timid, pusillanimous. 

Note. — For the root of the word in the first sense see the Hebrew 

verb Halal in Piel, to praise, and in the second the Arabic Halal, timid, 

pusillanimous — Tahlil, to cause to be timid, 

We may account for the origin of these words in two very 
probable ways. 

First, by supposing that the Hebrew letter Hay, the 
prefix to the verbs in Hiphil, was in various instances read 
as Tav, by gaining a superfluous point at the bottom. Should 
any one object to this, my answer is that Hay and Tav have 
actually been misread, substituted for each other, and printed 
by the translators of the English Bible ; for in 2 Samuel, 
xxiii. 8., we read " The Tachmonite, chief among the captains," 
and in 1 Chronicles, xi. 11. "An Hachmonite, the chief of 
the captains." Hay, by gaining a superfluous point at the 
bottom, becomes Tav, and at the same time a Hebrew causa- 
tive verb is converted into an Arabic one, and Tav by losing 
its bottom point becomes Hay ; and at the same time an 
Arabic causative verb is converted into a Hebrew one, in 
both instances with the same signification. 

Secondly, by supposing that the Arabic letter He *, the 

* The numerical value of this letter is five, which is precisely that of 
Hay in the Hebrew. There can be little doubt, therefore, that in the 



96 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE 

twenty-seventh of the alphabet, was at an early period con- 
founded with Ha, the sixth of the alphabet. The former by 
the addition of two diacritical points becomes T, or Hebrew 
words are converted into Arabic. By losing the diacritical 
points, T becomes H, or Arabic w T ords are reconverted into 
Hebrew. In many instances large classes of words have 
been created by misreading early manuscripts, and alphabeti- 
cal writing, instead of preventing, has been an active cause in 
increasing the diversity of language, so that in this case the 
very reverse of the maxim of Horace is true : — 

" Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures 
Quani quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus." 

Hokat. Be Arte Poetica, 180. 

In every thing connected with language, I believe the eye 
lias been more frequently deceived than the ear, and that 
written languages are most, and unwritten least changed. 

I shall now proceed to give a list of those Arabic words 
which I have remarked as containing curious etymologies, 
or exhibiting analogies with, and illustrating the formation of, 
other languages. 

Arabic Words. Analogies. 

Abati, poetically for Abat, my father .Abbot, the superior of a monastery. 

Ab-.d, sempiternal, durable Abide, English. 

Aaj am, a Persian Ogham, ancient Irish writing. Sir 

William Jones says it has been observed that the writing at 

Persepolis bears a strong resemblance to that which the Irish 

call Ogham. 
Isak, binding, constraining Is not this a more probable etymology 

of the name of the patriarch Isaac than that usually given, in the 

sense of covenant? Genesis, xvii. 19. 

j Bursa, the c'tadel of Carthage. 

_, . ,, , o . -n J Birs iSTimrod, at Babvlon. 

Bur,, a castle, tower, fortress, wall A ^^ ^ 

[Borough, English. 

Tarik, leaving, deserting By some supposed to be the origin of 

the name of the Turks in the sense of emigrants from Tartary. 

Samsam, a destroyer The name of the sword of the Ca- 
liph Haroun al Rashid. (Gibbon, vol. x. p. 54.) 

arrangement of the old Arabic alphabet, it occupied the fifth place ; a cir- 
cumstance which gives additional probability to the opinion of Albert 
Schultens, who says, " Probe est tenendum antiquissimas Arabum literas 
aliam faciem obtinuisse ; atque turn numero, turn ordine, alphabeto 
Hebraico examussim respondisse." 



AND GRAMMAR. 97 

Arabic Words. Analogies. 

Samrat, one fruit The Arabic final T, as the mark of 

individuality, appears to be perfectly identical with the Persic I. 
See Jones's Grammar, pages 205 and 335. Perhaps there was a 
period when the two letters were precisely the same in both lan- 
guages, a change having gradually taken place in the diacritical 
points which distinguish I and T. 

Jadib, a liar This is very like the Hebrew Chazab, 

with a change of the diacritical points. 

Jahjah, a prince, a chief. Has this word any connection with 

the Hebrew Jehovah which is sometimes written Jah, as a con- 
traction ? 

Julus, tile accession to the throne.... This appears to be the etymology of 
lulus, the second name of Ascanius the son and successor of 
iEneas, and equivalent to heir apparent. 

Jihun, Persic and Arabic The river Gihon or Bactrus, remark- 
able for being mentioned as one of the rivers of Paradise. 

Khulus, purity, sincerity Kalos (Greek), good. 

Dall, looking amorously to dally, English. 

Dawn or Dun, inferior Down, English. 

Dahmat, blackness Dimmet (Provincial English), twi- 
light. 

Rumman, the pomegranate Rummanat, one pomegranate. In 

Hebrew, Rimmon, which is also the name of a celebrated god of 
Syria. If Iacchus, one of the names of Bacchus, be derived, as 
I conjecture, from the Persic Tak, a vine, by a change of the 
diacritical points, which converts it into Iak, Rimmon may be 
the Oriental Bacchus, or the sun ; the vine and the pomegranate, 
" the efforts of his power," being put in both instances for the 
sun itself. Or Rimmon, the pomegranate, may have been sacred 
to the god Rimmon, simply from homonymy, or similarity of 
name, which I believe will be found to have been the principal 
source of all such consecrations. 

Rawd, going in quest of forage and \ This seems to be the origin of the 

water J Scottish word Raid, a predatory 

border incursion The word road occurs once in the English 
Bible for inroad. 1. Sam. xxvii. 10. 

Zibal, filth In the Arabic Testament we have 

Baalzebul, instead of Beelzebub, i. e. the lord of unclean 
spirits. In Hebrew the latter word signifies god of flies. 

Sibil, necessity, and perhaps fate Quaere, the Roman Sibyl. 

Sijjil, hard stones Sigillum (Latin), a seal. 

Sidn, the awning of a camel's litter.. .Sedan, English. 

Saraj, the sun Surya, Sanskrit. 

Sard, sewing, with the Coptic verb f Sartor (Latin), a tailor. 
Er, esse, facere. \ Sartore, Italian. 

Sunnat, institution, law (Senatus (Latin), the assembly which 

L made laws. 
Sharif, noble Sheriff, English. 

H 



Sakaa, the sun 1. 



93 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE 

Arabic Words. Analogies. 

Sabun, soap Savon, French. 

Sabaa, Sabaism, Tsaba, Hebrew. I believe the oldest form of 

Sabaism consisted in the worship of the sun only, or of the sun 

and moon at most, and in this sense to be derived from the 

Sanskrit Sava, or Saba, the sun, the moon. When it included 

the stars and constellations also, " the Host of Heaven," the 

probable etymology was Subha, Sanskrit, an assembly of the 

gods, or the above Arabic or Hebrew word. 

Sakya, or Sacya, a name of Budha, 

Sanskrit. 

Sacse, ancient Scythians, Persians, or 

sun worshippers. 

Odin, or Woden, the son of*Sigge, in 

the Northern Mythology. 

-Saxons, i. e. sun worshippers. 

Tas and Tash, Pers. and Arab., a cup. .Tasse, French, 

Tawl, long Tall (English), high. 

Aajuz. The meanings of this word are absolutely endless, 

and must require to be discriminated by as many inflections 

of the voice as any word in the vocabulary of the Celestial 

Empire, the spoken language of which, I feel confident, is far 

from standing quite isolated, as has hitherto been pretended. 

Aadd, numeration, number Add, English. 

Aammat, a mother's sister 1 A ., /T ,. x e +!.„„»«, •+_ 

A ,.11 r Amita (Latin), a father s sister. 

Aammu, a paternal uncle J v y 

Ghalb, victory, dominion " Ettu, Galba, quandoque degustabis 

imperium." (Tacit. Ann. 6. 20.) Tiberius resided seven years at 
Rhodes, was probably acquainted with some of the languages of 
the East, and merely played on the name of Galba ; but when 
the latter really attained the dignity of emperor, the pun was 
converted by superstition into a prophecy, as many others have 
been both before and since. 

Ghars, plant Grass, English, by transposition. 

Fajir, the dawn In the Hebrew Scriptures Baal-Peor, 

i. e. lord of the morning, an epithet of the sun, and sometimes 
Peor simply, " in the matter of Peor." 

Furat, very fine sweet water The river Euphrates, written Frat, 

Dual Furatan, the Euphrates and Tigris. 

Farzi, skilled in the law Quaere, Pharisee, as affecting a parti- 
cular attachment to the law of Moses. 

fPhemi (Greek), dico. 

Fim, the mouth < Pheme (Greek), fama, i.e. ea quse 

I dicta est. 

™, ,, ., f Phi (Hebrew), a mouth. 

Fih, the mouth |phe (Ionic Greek), dixit. 

Kubal, the fore part. Pudenda "1 I believe this word with a final Eta 

viri vel fceminas J to be the origin of the Greek Cybele, 

the mother of the gods, who appears to be a personification of 
nature, generation, creation, or production, and to have much in 
common with the Siva Linga of the Hindus, one of whose names 



AND GRAMMAR. 99 

Arabic Words. Analogies. 

is Bhagah. It is probable that the above Arabic may be com- 
pounded from two Hebrew words, Kobah, matrix, Vulva, and 
Ail, god, by contraction, and with a final Eta, Kubele (Greek), 
literally, the goddess of generation. 

Kuraa, a wager at a horse-race Quaere, Curragh, an Irish race-course 

in the county Kildare. If the Arabic letter Ain were written 
Ghain (Gh) with the addition of a dot, the two words would 
correspond almost letter for letter. 

Karn, a horn, the top of a moun- 1 Quaere, Cairn (Scottish), a barrow, 
tain, a tumulus of sand. J or monumental tumulus. 

Kasm, division .....Chasm, English. 

Tr , , fKalamos, Greek. 

Kalam, a pen, a reed { Calamus, Latin. 

Kamis, a shirt Chemise, French. 

Kaas, or Kas, wine "1 f One, or both of these words are related 

Kasa, cream of milk J \ to the Kous-Kous, or fermented 

mare's milk, which the Tartars are so fond of. There is cer- 
tainly a more intimate relation between the languages of Persia 
and Arabia and those of Tartary than Sir William Jones was 
disposed to allow. See Kipchak in Richardson. 

Kabar, a drum with one face This and many other words in 

Arabic remind one of what is said of the Chinese language, 
that it consists of a few roots, the meaning of which is in- 
finitely varied by accentuation. 

Kirbas, fine linen Carbasus, Latin. 

Kursuf (Arabic), cotton "I Xer „i- ef English 

Karshaf (Persic), cotton j Bremer, .fcmgiisn. 

^ a cherry { %£+%£ } a cherry tree. 

Lawt, bedaubing with mud [ ^^pS^^Jb. 01 *^ 

Mubhil, setting at liberty Mobilis, Latin. 

Mutsia, making the number nine .... The Muses, nine in number. 

Mutalatum, battered Mutilatus, Latin. 

Masmas, a confused affair Mizmaze (vulgo), English. 

Makhzan, a storehouse Magazine, English. 

Madk, breaking a stone "I 

Midakk, an instrument with which J» Maddock, or Mattock, English. 

any thing is broken J 

Marsh, ground levelled or reduced 1 ,»- , -, -^ ,. 1 

, ' fe t ■. . , • > Marsh, a meadow, English, 

to a pulp by the ram J ' ' ° 

Marmar (Pers. and Arab.), marble { £^^ ek . 

Maskin, a miserable wretch Meschino, Italian. 

Mashin, villainous Mechant, French. 

Malih, good The regular positive of the Latin 

comparative Melior, contracted from Malih- or, better. 
Mamnun, strong, robust. I suspect that this was the surname 

of Artaxerxes, King of Persia, which the Greeks not under- 

H 2 



100 THE ARABIC LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

Arabic Words. Analogies. 

standing, changed into Mnemon. Herodotus calls Susa the city 
of Memnon, which in Persia, as well as in Egypt, was a name 
of the sun. The meaning of Memnon in Arabic is in perfect 
harmony with the description of the sun in Hebrew poetry 
(Psalm xix. 5.), in which it is said that " He rejoiceth as a 
strong man to run a race," and with the gigantic statues of 
Memnon in Egypt. That the Sun in the Greek Mythology 
was regarded as a giant, and the son of the Earth, see Lein- 
priere in voce Titan. 

Mahal, formidable, dreadful Malus (Latin), bad. 

Nati, swelling, prominent Nates, Latin. . 

Nubah, a barker Latrator Anubis, Latin. 

Nabil, grand, beautiful Noble, English. 

And by Metonymy, perhaps, the 

nose itself; hence we have, 
Nasus, Latin. 
Naso, Italian. 
Nez, French. 
Nose, English. 
Ness, Northern. 

Naal, a hoof; any thing which de- \ Hence Nail (English) of the toes and 
fends the feet of man or beast... J fingers. 

Mar (Hebrew), bitter. 



Nass, elevating, moving the nose. 
Nassas, drawing up the nose 



Nawfal, the sea. 
Nawfalat, salt, saline 



Mare (Latin), the sea. 
Mer (French), the sea. 
Als (Greek), salt. 
Als (Greek), the sea. 
Als Pontos, in Homer, the salt sea, 
not the Hellespont. Real names can hardly originate in mytho- 
logical stories like the extravagant one of Helle, and in every 
instance, probably, the name is centuries older than the fable 
which pretends to account for it. 

Wasit, the middle Waist (English), by transposition. 

Wahim, imagination, fancy Whim, English. 

Watar, singular, alone Perhaps Water (English), in the 

sense of pure, an element. 
Wadd, Wid, or Wad, love, friend- 1 md Eno . ligh 

ship J ' ° 

Washi, painting, dyeing A Wash, in the language of painters. 

Waad, promising Wedding, in the sense of avow or 

contract. 

Wan, small, few Whiffling (English), trifling. 

Walk, active, nimble Walk, English. 

Wann, weakness, languor Wan (English), languid of look. 

m , - f f Wae, Scotch. 

Wah ' § rief " J Woe! English. - 

Haaha, laughing. This word appears to be imitative, like the 

English Ha, Ha ! 
Hubub, awaking, rousing Hubbub (English), a sudden dis- 
turbance. 



101 



CHAP. XII. 

ON THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

" Ye orient realms, where Ganges' waters run ! 
Prolific fields ! dominions of the sun ! 
How long your tribes have trembled and obey'd ! 
How long was Timur's iron sceptre sway'd ! 
Whose marshall'd hosts, the lions of the plain, 
From Scythia's northern mountains to the main, 
Raged o'er your plunder'd shrines and altars bare 
With blazing torch and gory scyraitar, 
Stunn'd with the cries of death each gentle gale, 
And bathed in blood the verdure of the vale. 
Yet could no pangs the immortal spirit tame 
When Brama's children perish'd for his name ; 
The martyr smiled beneath avenging power, 
And braved the tyrant in his torturing hour !" 

Pleasures of Hope. 

I. The primary division of every alphabet, according to my 
view of the subject, is into two classes. 

1. Those characters which are the signs of simple or ele- 
mentary sounds, and are all the genuine letters. 

2. Those characters which are not the representatives of 
simple sounds, and therefore, strictly speaking, not letters, 
but merely contractions in writing, and combinations of ele- 
mentary sounds, like the Greek long vowels, aspirates, and 
double letters. 

3. But all the signs of simple, or elementary sounds, are 
not distinct letters ; but merely different characters for, or 
modes of, expressing the same simple sound. Should the 
English ever become a dead language, because we have two 
or three modes of writing R, S, and T, in manuscript, remote 
posterity will fancy each form a distinct letter with a power 
of its own, as has been the case in most of the dead lan- 
guages (more especially the Sanskrit), and in the Arabic, a 
living one. 

As the Greeks appear to have possessed the most musical 
ears of any people that ever existed, if we could ascertain 

H 3 



102 THE SANSKEIT LANGUAGE 

with certainty the number of letters which constituted their 
primitive alphabet, together with their power, it would form 
something like a criterion to guide us in all other cases. The 
precise power of their letters is matter of great doubt and 
obscurity, as it must necessarily be with every dead lan- 
guage; but we have strong reasons for believing that the 
letters themselves did not exceed sixteen. 

II. The Sanskrit Alphabet, says Wilkins, appears to possess 
no less than fifty letters : but, upon examining their power, 
the number of simple articulations may be reduced to twenty- 
eight, namely, five vowels, and twenty-three consonants. 
Diodorus Siculus appears to be the first European who has 
described the Sanskrit alphabet, in his relation of the voyage 
of Iambulus to Ceylon, though it must be confessed that his 
account is neither very clear nor very circumstantial. He 
says in their writing they make use of seven characters, or 
letters ; but each of these characters has four different posi- 
tions, which gives in all twenty-eight names of letters. 
They extend their lines, not as we do from left to right, but 
from top to bottom. (Diodorus, lib. ii.) It must be ac- 
knowledged that the twenty-eight names of letters would, at 
the first view, appear to indicate the Arabic alphabet beyond 
a doubt, as that is the precise number which it now contains, 
and Savary's Arabic Grammar gives four forms of letters, 
varying according to their position of initial, medial, or final. 
On the other hand, I believe there was a period when the 
Arabic alphabet contained fewer letters than it does at pre- 
sent, perhaps not more than the Hebrew, or twenty-two. 
But we may remark that in Wilkins's Sanskrit Grammar, the 
arrangement of the letters (consonants) is seven perpendicu- 
larly, and five horizontally ; and as many of these are double 
letters, and many different forms of the same letter, which 
are of little use in writing Sanskrit, and hardly occupy a place 
in the Lexicon, it is highly probable that the primitive 
alphabet did. not contain more than twenty-eight characters, 
to which number Wilkins has remarked the existing one may 
be reduced. But the mode of writing described by Diodorus, 
from the top to the bottom of the page, which the Greeks 



AND GRAMMAR. 103 

denominated Kionedon, and made use of in columnar in- 
scriptions, is still practised in Ceylon ; and there is every 
reason to believe that their ancient religious books were written 
in the Pali language, which may almost be regarded as a dia- 
lect of Sanskrit ; two circumstances which render it highly 
probable that Diodorus intended to describe the Sanskrit 
alphabet, and the Devanagari characters. 

in. A knowledge of the native languages of India appears 
to have been acquired by Europeans very slowly and gra- 
dually. On their first introduction into that vast continent, 
they found the language of conversation and general inter- 
course to be the Hindustani or Moors, while the Persic was, 
and continued up to a late period to be, the language of 
diplomacy, the court, and the law. That distinguished 
Oriental scholar, Reland, must at least have felt some interest 
on the subject, as is proved by the titles of some of the 
essays in his Dissertationes Miscellanea? (3 torn. 12mo. Traj. 
1706), De Veteri Lingua Indica, which appears to allude 
directly to the Sanskrit, and De Linguis Insularum quar. 
Orientalium ; but as I have never seen the work itself, I can 
give no opinion as to the extent or accuracy of his know- 
ledge. 

IV. If I am not much mistaken, Anquetil du Perron has 
the merit of having made the Sanskrit alphabet, in its present 
state, first known in Europe, though it does not appear that 
he made much progress in the language itself. He describes 
it as consisting of sixteen vowels and thirty-five consonants 
and has given the names of the letters, though not their 
forms, very accurately. (Zend Avesta, torn. i. p. 172 t , note.) 
The abridged account of his travels was published in 1762, 
while Mr. Halhead's remarks on the Sanskrit language were 
not earlier than 1778, and Sir William Jones's Discourse 
on the Hindus was not delivered until the 2d of February 
1786. 

v. According to the late Sir Charles Wilkins, one of the 
highest possible authorities, to Mr. Halhead is due the dis- 
tinguished honour of having been the first European Sanskrit 
scholar. In the preface to his Grammar of the Bengal lan- 

H 4 






104 THE SANSKEIT LANGUAGE 

guage, which was published in 1778, he expresses himself as 
follows : — " The great source of Indian literature, the parent 
of almost every dialect from the Persian Gulf to the China 
Seas, is the Sanskrit, a language of the most venerable and 
unfathomable antiquity ; which, although at present shut up 
in the libraries of the Brahmins, and appropriated solely to 
the records of their religion, appears to have been current 
over most of the Oriental world ; and traces of its original 
extent may still be discovered in almost every district of 
Asia. I have been astonished to find the similitude of Sans- 
krit words with those of Latin and Greek ; and those not in 
technical and metaphorical terms, which the mutation of re- 
fined arts and improved manners might have occasionally 
introduced, but in the main groundwork of language, in 
monosyllables, in the names of numbers, and the appellations 
of such things as would be first discriminated on the imme- 
diate dawn of civilization." (Wilkins's Preface to Sanskrit 
Grammar, p. 8.) * 

VI. The literal meaning of the word Sanskrit appears 
to me to occur in the phrase " Sanskrita Yavan," when the 
barley is winnowed (Wilkins, Gramm. page 562.), i. e. the 
language from which all colloquial barbarisms, provincial 
peculiarities, and grammatical anomalies are excluded. The 
unsifted language is the Prakrit, or natural, which confers 
on it a double value in the eyes of the etymologist and the 
inquirer into the philosophy of language. The great cause 
of the slow growth and imperfect state both of etymology 
and the theory of language, has been, first, because almost all 
the efforts of philologists have been exerted on the two lan- 
guages of all others the least fit for their purpose, because 
the most polished and refined, that is, in other words, dif- 
fering most widely from their original structure — the Greek 
and Latin; and secondly, because all have confounded the 
artificial arrangements of grammarians, made solely with a 
view to classification and facility of reference, with the es- 
sential nature of language itself. The above etymology of 
the word Sanskrit derives a slight degree of support from 
the name of the Florentine Academy. The Academy of 



AND GRAMMAR. 105 

Florence, says Hallam, resounded with the praises of Petrarch. 
A few seceders from this body established the more cele- 
brated Academy clella Crusca, of the sieve, whose appellation 
bespoke the spirit in which they meant to sift all they 
undertook to judge. (Literature, vol. ii. page 424.)* 

VII. Sanskrit Nouns are of three genders, masculine, femi- 
nine and neuter, and have also three numbers, the singular, 
the dual, and the plural. 

They have eight cases in each number, which are always 
arranged in the following order, and in naming them it is 
usual to say the first, second, third case, singular, dual, or 
plural. 

The first is the Nominative Case. 

The second is the Accusative Case. 

The third may be denominated the Implementive Case, 
having the force of the sign by, or with. 

The fourth is the proper Dative Case, with the sign to. 

The fifth i3 the Ablative Case, with the sign from. 

The sixth is the Genitive, or Possessive Case, with the sign 
of or belonging to. 

The seventh may be called the Locative Case, with the sign 
in or on. 

The eighth is the Vocative Case. 

The number of declensions of nouns in Wilkins's Grammar 
is eight, distinguished by their terminations, the first three 
of which nearly correspond with the vowel terminations of 
the Greek fifth declension of nouns of unequal syllables. 
Rules 68 and 69 for the declension of nouns, as given in the 
native grammars of India, really appear to be worse than no 
rule at all, as, according to Wilkins, 69 cannot be rendered 
operative without the application of upwards of twenty ad- 
ditional special rules. If the Sanskrit language is ever to be 
extensively studied in Europe, a necessary previous condition 
must be the entire remodelling of the grammar. 

In the example of the first declension given by Wilkins, I 

* The literal meaning of Crusca in Italian is bran. The Sanskrit is 
the fine flour, which is abstracted by the process of sifting, the Prakrit is 
the residuum. 



106 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

observe that in the singular number of the masculine and 
neuter genders, the nominative and vocative cases only differ 
from each other ; and that the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and 
seventh cases are exactly alike, both in the dual and plural 
numbers ; also, that the masculine and feminine are pre- 
cisely similar in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh 
cases of the dual number, and the first, sixth, and eighth of 
the plural. Surely, prima facie, this agrees very badly with 
Sir William Jones's elaborate eulogium, " that the Sanskrit 
language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful struc- 
ture ; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the 
Latin, and more excellently refined than either." (Wilkins's 
Gramm. pages 36 — 39.) 

viii. The Sanskrit Pronouns are as under, viz. 

Aham, I. Vayan, we. 

Twan, thou. Yuyan, ye. 

Sah, he. Tava, thy. 

Sa, she. Sus, his. 

Tad, that. 
ix. The Verbs may, in the first instance, be considered as 
divided into three species, primitives, derivatives, and nomi- 
nals. The primitives require no explanation ; the term deri- 
vative is used to denote such verbs as are formed from 
primitives, and which are of three kinds, causals, reiteratives, 
and volitives. 

A causal verb is derived from its primitive, by the intro- 
duction of the syllable Ay before the termination ; and thus 
from Yachati, he seeketh, is formed the causal Yachayati, he 
causeth to seek, Yachayitun, to cause to seek. 

The power of the causal verb in Sanskrit is precisely 
similar to that of the Hebrew verb in Hiphil, which is 
characterised by the letter Hay (h) prefixed to the first, and 
the letter Yood (i) inserted between the second and third 
radicals. That the resemblance between the Sanskrit causa- 
tive verb and the Hebrew verb in Hiphil is very close, will 
be rendered more obvious by placing in juxta-position two 
words very nearly alike, having the same meaning both in 
Hebrew and Sanskrit- 



AND GRAMMAR. 107 

Hebrew root, Shainar, he remembered. 

Hiphil, Hishmir, he caused to remember (not used). 

Sanskrit root, Smri, remember. 

Smarati, he remembers. 
Smarayati, he causes to remember. 

A volitive derivative is formed upon its primitive by 
doubling and modifying its root, and introducing a sibilant 
letter before the termination. 

Verbs have two voices, active and passive. There are 
two distinct forms of conjugation for the active voice, which 
we may call proper and common. 

The proper form is said to be used when the fruit of the 
action reverts to the agent, and the common form when it 
passes to another ; but these distinctions do not appear to be 
much adhered to. (Wilkins's Grammar, p. 121.) 

After all that has been said about the extreme accuracy 
and superior refinement of the Sanskrit, it cannot but appear 
extraordinary that these two forms should be confounded, as 
they appear to be separated by a well-defined line of demar- 
cation, The former corresponds with the Hebrew verb in 
Hithpael™ " Jam dictum est verba in hac conjugatione signi- 
ficationem habere reflectivam, seu significare actionem agentis 
in se ipsum " (Masclef, torn. i. p. 113.); and with the Greek 
middle voice — " Quasdam sunt sensu vere medio, qua3 reci- 
proca dici possint, ut louomai, lavo me ipsum, vel lavor a me 
ipso, ubi actio reflectitur in agentem " (Eton Greek Gramm. 
p. 84.) ; also with the French reflective verb, Je me lave, 
I wash myself. The latter or common form is obviously 
the Latin verb active transitive. 

x. The Sanskrit has six moods — the infinitive, the in- 
dicative, the imperative, the potential, the precative, and the 
conditional. 

In the indicative mood are six tenses — one present, three 
preterites, and two futures : the other moods consist but of 
one tense each. And here I cannot but notice an observa- 
tion of Wilkins, which appears to admit that in the written 
compositions of Hindustan there is a divorce between theory 
and practice, between the injunctions of the grammarian and 
the actual productions of the author, which we should little 



108 THE SAMSKKIT LANGUAGE 

have expected in the Sanskrit, a language the subtlety and 
refinements of which, we were confidently assured by its 
early proficients, were destined to throw both Greek and 
Latin into the shade. He says, " The author of the Mugha 
Bodha (Vopadeva) has given an example of each of the six 
tenses of the indicative mood, in a verse which comprehends 
a brief history of the ten incarnations of Yishnu. It is 
Avorthy of particular notice, that the three preterites and the 
two futures are here used indiscriminately and indefinitely, 
and that in works of great length it is seldom that the nice 
distinctions noticed in grammars can be perceived, particularly 
as applied to the preterites and the two futures. (Sanskrit 
Grammar, p. 648.) 

xi. With respect to the origin of the Sanskrit verb, about 
which a great deal has been written, there is a passage on 
the subject in the Edinburgh Review, in its notice of 
Thiersch's Greek Grammar, so apposite as to require no 
apology for quoting it, though it is rather long. " Hemster- 
huys far outstripped his predecessors by the boldness and 
originality of his views, no less than by the learning and sa- 
gacity with which he supported them. Availing himself of 
some hints thrown out by Scaliger and Vossius, and probably 
influenced by considerations drawn from the peculiar structure 
of the Oriental tongues, he was led to conclude that the 
primary verbs consisted of two or three letters, from which 
all the other forms and inflexions were derived ; and that by 
skilful decomposition, the root or elementary part might in 
every case be determined. Plausible arguments may be 
urged in favour of this etymological theory, which was re- 
ceived as a great discovery by Valcnaer, Rhunken, Lennep, 
Albert Schultens, Everard Scheide, the Bishop of St. David's, 
and others ; but notwithstanding all this weight of authority, 
it seems to us, we confess, to be radically unsound. Much 
of the Greek language is of Asiatic origin ; a considerable 
portion of its vocabulary is pure Sanskrit ; the whole of its 
inflexions and conjugations have been modelled upon the 
sacred language of India, Greek and Sanskrit answer to 
each other as face answers to face in a glass. But in 



AND GRAMMAR. .109 

SANSKRIT, THE ROOTS OR ELEMENTARY PARTS ARE OF 
POSTERIOR FORMATION ; THEY ARE THE WORK OF GRAM- 
MARIANS ALONE, MERE TECHNICAL ELEMENTS OBTAINED 
BY ARBITRARY RESOLUTION, NOT PRIMARY OR ORIGINAL 
FORMS, CONVERTIBLE INTO NEW SPECIES OF WORDS BY 
THE ARTIFICES OF INFLEXION AND CONJUGATION. They 

are not natural roots, and consequently can have had no 
share in the original formation of the language. They are 
significant by consonants alone, and for this reason differ 
diametrically from Greek roots, which are significative or 
determinable by vowels only. The theory of Hemsterhuys is, 
therefore, wholly inapplicable to all that portion of the Greek 
which is incontestably of Asiatic origin, and there would be 
no great difficulty in showing that it is equally so to the 
remainder. But whatever objections may be taken to the 
speculations of Hemsterhuys, it certainly tended to stimulate 
inquiry, and produced many collateral investigations of the 
greatest importance to the general science of grammar. In 
Hermann's celebrated treatise f De Emendenda Ratione 
Grsecse Grammatical,' there is much to gratify the lovers of 
philosophical discussion as applied to the subject of Greek 
grammar ; and although it may be true that he trusted too 
much to metaphysical principles, and 'the universal nature 
of speech,' it seems at least equally so that his example has 
operated powerfully on the minds of his learned countrymen, 
and encouraged them to undertake and execute those valuable 
works on the subject which have recently appeared in Ger- 
many, and which reflect so much credit on the transcendant 
scholarship of that country." (Edin. Review, vol. lii. p. 474.) 
xii. If we could believe that the sentences printed in 
capitals were strictly and literally true, we should be under 
the necessity of coming to the conclusion, that the Sanskrit 
is a language sui generis, and altogether different from any 
other language that was ever spoken, or at any rate written, 
by the human race. In the present advanced state of science, 
however, every year that passes by, augmenting our stores of 
philological knowledge, and enabling us to draw our in- 
ductions from a more ample and varied collection of facts, 



110 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

and establish general conclusions as to the nature of speech, 
indisposes us more and more to receive such startling para- 
doxes, and, what is much more to the purpose, supplies us 
with materials for refuting them. We are requested to 
believe, that the Dhatos, roots, or themes, of the Sanskrit 
verbs, are not the work of nature, but of art ; not the pro- 
ductions of man in the infancy of language, but the con- 
trivance of grammarians in a far advanced state of civil 
society; an assertion which appears to me much about as rea- 
sonable as it would be to say that, after an architect has 
completed the body and superstructure of his edifice, he 
directs his attention to laying the foundation. If it be so, 
and it is well worth inquiring if this be actually the case, 
the grammarians of Hindustan have acted a much more im- 
portant part on the theatre of the world, than the same class 
of men in any other age or country, and achieved a triumph 
compared with which that of the institution of castes, 
arbitrary and unnatural as it is, is as nothing. In other 
countries, grammarians have never been looked on as the 
creators, or even legislators, of language ; and were regarded 
as exercising their highest functions by acting the part of his- 
torians, and tracing its origin and progress, or of interpreters, 
by illustrating its obscurities and unfolding its principles, 
principles not established by them, but resting altogether on 
that prescription, that mixture of antiquity, knowledge, and 
custom — 

" Queni penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi." 

Horat. de Arte Poetica. 

xiii. I will commence by giving a list of upwards of 
thirty words, which are at once verbs and nouns in Sanskrit, 
the result of which must be, either to dethrone the Hindu 
grammarians by proving that they invented nothing, or to 
double their dominions by proving that they invented both 
nouns and verbs ; and if I am not much mistaken, this list 
will go a great way in inducing us to come to the conclusion, 
not only that verbs were derived from nouns, but to suspect 
at least that all the other parts of speech w T ere so also. 



AND GRAMMAR. Ill 

Nouns. Verbs. 

Archa, the sun Archa, to worship. 

Kisa, the sun Kusha, to shine. 

Tr r. , fKrama, to go, to walk. 

Krama, afoot JKhiram, Persic. 

Grini, the sun ~J 

Grynseus (Greek), a name of \ Grina, to shine. 

Apollo J 

Pada, a foot Pada, to go, to move. 

Patha, a road Patha, to go. 

Parna, a leaf Parna, to make or be green. 

Phala, fruit Phala, to produce fruit. 

Bandha, a tie, or fetter Bandha, to bind. 

Baha, the arm Baha, to endeavour. 

Mriga, a deer Mriga, to hunt. 

Yudh, war, battle Yudha, to fight. 

Ranga paint colour JRanja, to die. 

Rang (Persic), stain, die J J ' 

Raj a king (the sun the king of f ^giaf to^shtie, perhaps from Bex, 
the host of heaven) ... j * ^^ ^ V 

f Rucha, to shine. 
Ruch, light «| Rusa, to shine, perhaps from Roshan 

[ (Persic), splendour. 

Rupa, form Rupa, to form. 

Rij, Agni, or fire Rija> to shine. 

Varsha, rain, raining Yarsha, to be wet. 

Yaha, any vehicle Yaha, to carry. 

Yina, Brahma (the sun) (Vina, to go (from the sun's apparent 

v y motion j. 

Brahma, the sun ( Bh ™ ma > , to mo ^ circularly (like 

' L the sun). 

" As Eastern Priests in giddy circles run, 
And turn their heads to imitate the sun." Essay on Man. 

Sana, a grindstone Sana, to whet, to sharpen. 

Sina, crimson "I c . , , -, 

Shani, Hebrew j Sma, to be red. 

Swita, white Swita, to be white. 

Sura, the sun (contracted from ( gh to sMne . 

Surya) J 

Sambhs, water Sanibha, to go (like a stream). 

Sura, the sun Sura, to shine. 

Stoma, praise 1 

Stoma (Greek), the mouth J- Stoma, to praise. 

Stoman (Sanskrit), the head J 

Haya, a horse Haya, to move. 

Hay a, Indra (the sun) Haya, to worship. 

Hrada,alake {^atake)! "^ (like the waterS of 

Rudah (Persic), a river Hruda, to go (like its stream). 



112 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

Nouns. Verbs. 

Phullan, a flower, or blossom ... 1 

Phullon (Greek), a leaf J- Phulla, to blossom, to flower. 

Pulhis (Latin), a sprout or bud... J 

Pushpan, a flower Pushpa, to expand, flower, blossom. 

Grasa, a mouthful Grasa, to eat. 

Ghars (Arabic) a plant { Grasa ( Sansl F it ) J to eat - 

v ^ /' c F ••• • (_ Graze (English), to eat grass. 

Pithah, the sun ] 

Pjthius (Greek), a name of f Putha, to shine. 
Apollo J 

{Asa, to shine, from a Sanskrit root, 
Asha, to shine, from Aish (Hebrew), 
fire. Radical letters Ash. 

xiv. If we take the first words in the list Archa, the 
sun, and Archa, to worship, it appears to me that there can 
be little doubt as to which is the primitive and which the 
derivative. The records and traditions of almost every 
ancient people tend to prove that the sun was their 
earliest, and in many instances their only god. As the 
most conspicuous object in the creation, it would naturally 
be one of the first named ; and as the principal, if not the 
sole God and object of adoration, his name as naturally 
became equivalent to worship. As the most brilliant object 
in the material world, we may observe that his numerous 
names produced as many verbs signifying to shine ; and it is 
quite obvious that, when the noun denoting the sun was 
recollected, there could be little doubt about the verb formed 
from the same, or nearly the same, letters. 

xy. The most comprehensive definition of a verb is, that it 
is a word significant either of Action or Being ; but as Action 
necessarily supposes an agent, and Being something that 
exists, nouns may be said to be metaphysically older than 
verbs. We can conceive of an agent without the exertion 
of active power, as he may possess it but be indisposed to 
exercise it ; but we cannot, by any effort of our minds, form 
an idea of Action without an agent, or of Being without some- 
thing that is. We may remark, that in every instance the 
verb expressing any particular action has derived its name 
from the agent, member, or part of the body chiefly instru- 
mental in producing that action ; as Krama, a foot, Krama, 



AND GRAMMAR. 113 

to go. Pada, a foot, Pada, to go. Baha, the arm, Baha, 
to endeavour, the arm being the chief member employed in 
almost all our exertions, and the great instrument in pro- 
ducing most of the enjoyments and blessings of civilization. 
Perhaps the most striking quality of the sun is his splendour, 
and hence the numerous verbs To shine derived from his 
various names ; but it is far from being his only one, as his 
apparent motion is equally remarkable : and hence we have 
Vina, the sun, and Yina, to go or move generally ; and as 
the sun appears to move round the earth, Brahma, the sun, 
Brahma, to move circularly. Sometimes a verb signifying 
motion is formed from a natural object which moves quickly, 
as Hay a, a horse, Hay a, to move ; Sambha, water, Sambha, 
to go (like a stream); and as the noun always imparts its own 
colour to the verb corresponding with its name, instead of 
borrowing from it, we may suspect that where the Sanskrit 
verb Haya signifies to worship, it was formed not simply from 
Haya, horse, but from Haya, a form of Indra, or the sun ; 
that where the Sanskrit verb Hruda signifies to collect, it 
was formed from the Sanskrit noun Hrada, a lake, by 
analogy with its assembled waters, but that where it signi- 
fies To go, it was formed from an extraneous root, the Persic 
word Rudah, a river, from a resemblance with its stream 
or current. The Sanskrit verb Grasa, to eat, was probably 
formed from the noun Grasa, a mouthful. Grasa is very 
like graze, English. If we suppose our own word derived 
from the Sanskrit, we must suppose at the same time that 
its use was restricted, not simply to the eating of cattle, but 
to the eating of cattle in a pasture field ; but as To graze sig- 
nifies to feed on grass, and Ghars in Arabic signifies a plant, 
it is much more probable that the English verb To graze was 
formed from the Arabic by a slight transposition, than that 
it was derived from the Sanskrit. 

xvi. Suppose I had wished to describe the action of 
hunting in a hieroglyphic picture (and it must never be 
forgotten that hieroglyphics appear to have constituted 
the primitive writing of almost all the nations of mankind, 
and that after it had been superseded by the invention of 

I 



114 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

alphabetical characters, both the origin of words and the 
extension of their meaning appear to have proceeded on the 
same principles) in what mode could I make it most clear 
to the spectators, or readers? There was no other mode 
than to draw the image of an animal commonly the object 
of pursuit, followed by a crowd of dogs, horses, and men, 
the latter armed with bows and arrows, and hunting spears, 
and this we know the Mexicans have actually done. The 
Egyptians and Chinese, in the second stage of picture- 
writing, for the sake of compendiousness would probably 
have described the action of hunting by the single figure of 
some animal which constituted the ordinary object of the 
chase ; and on this latter principle the Sanskrit language has 
proceeded by employing the word Mrig to signify a deer, 
and precisely the same word, letter for letter, to signify to 
hunt. And the Sanskrit has been closely followed by the 
Greek in which we find Ther (®rjp), a wild beast of any kind, 
Thera (®r}pa), hunting, and Therao (Srjpdco) I hunt. Sup- 
pose, again, that I had wished to describe, in hieroglyphic 
writing, not merely the object but the place of pursuit, not 
only what was hunted but where it was hunted, that the- 
deer was pursued through the green recesses of the forest. 
Hieroglyphics experience no difficulty about their nouns if 
they are the names of external objects. They draw the object, 
and their task is accomplished ; but to express qualities, to 
write adjectives, they have no other resource than to de- 
lineate some material figure in which the quality is most con- 
spicuous, and to contrive, at the same time, to inform us that 
the object is an adjective and not a substantive, and that we 
are to attend to its quality and neglect its form. And here 
again the Sanskrit has proceeded on the principles of hiero- 
glyphics, as in that language Parna signifies a leaf, the ob- 
ject in nature most remarkable for the quality of greenness ; 
and Parna is also a verb, signifying to be or to make green. 
Sometimes a verb signifying motion is derived from the 
name of some noun which facilitates motion; as, Patha, to go, 
from Patha, a road, or way, the etymology of our English 
word Path. 



AND GEAMMAR. 115 

xvii. It appears to me that quite enough has been said to 
prove that the Sanskrit Dhatos, or verbal roots, are any thing 
rather than the arbitrary and artificial contrivances of gram- 
marians, as we find many of them existing in that language as 
nouns substantive. But there is another argument that may 
be made use of, little less forcible ; which is, that we find 
numerous Greek and Latin verbs certainly cognate with, I 
should confidently say derived from, these Sanskrit roots ; a 
circumstance which goes a great way to prove, that at whatever 
period the progenitors of the Greek and Roman races may 
have emigrated from the great Indian stock, those Dhatos or 
roots were in use in Hindustan as ordinary words. I shall 
adduce a few instances only, but the list might be enlarged 
almost indefinitely. 

Sanskrit Roots. Greek and Latin Derivatives. 

Ma to spp I Eido ' Greek * 

icla ' t0 see \ Video, Latin. 

Gna, to know Gno5, Greek. 

Daha, to burn Daio, Greek. 

Nusha, to injure Noceo, Latin. 

Pa, cherish, nourish Pao (Greek), I feed. 

Pi, drink Pio (Greek), I drink. 

Phana, shine Phaino (Greek), I shine. 

Shtha, stand Sto (Latin), I stand. 

Ri, go Reo (Greek), I now. 

Ila, go Elauno (Greek), I go. 

Lambhi, cause obtain Lambano (Greek), I take. 

Tracha 

Traucha -go Trecho (Greek), I run. 

Traga J 

p , f Psao (Greek), I crush, or break in 

s ' " 1 pieces. 

-p , J Brucho (Greek), I gnash the teeth, 

Bru, speak | I groan. 

Stu, run Stoicheo (Greek), I go. 

In the Greek and Latin words, we not only find the 
Sanskrit root, but something more ; what is that something ? 
It appears to me to be a pronominal termination annexed 
and coalescing, and that the final O is in most instances a 
contraction of Ego ; the terminations of Elauno, and Lam- 
bano, the Syriac pronoun Ano, I ; and the terminations of 

I 2 



116 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

Brucho and Stoicheo, a contraction of the Hebrew Anochi, 
I. We find some verbs in Sanskrit which appear to be 
formed from Turkish roots, and it must be recollected that 
the Turks were Mongol Tartars, and the neighbours of the 
Hindus. 

Cushi (Turkish), handsome Ghushi, make bright, or beautiful . 

f Juna, go. 
Giun, the sun , < Ghuna, go round. 

|^ Ghana, shine. 
Sud (Turkish), milk Sudan, clean, whiten. 

xviii. Independently of these simple roots of Greek verbs, 
we find, on the other hand, several words having a common 
meaning in Sanskrit and Greek, without possessing, however, 
the smallest resemblance in form or sound applied to the 
same poetical personages, and employed to describe the same 
events ; a circumstance which induces us to come to the con- 
clusion, not merely that the two languages were derived 
from a common stock, but that the great body of Hindustan 
tradition, mythology, and poetical fiction, was afloat in 
Greece during the heroic ages, and supplied occasional hints 
to the creative genius of Homer himself. For instance, in 
Sanskrit we find the word Yakra, with the signification of 
crooked, curved, dishonest, fraudulent, cruel and malignant, 
and not merely an epithet joined with, but a name of Saturn. 
If we were required to translate Yakra into Greek, we could 
not render it more literally than by the word Agkulos ; and 
^A^KvkofirjTrjs, crooked-counselled, is Homer's most ordinary 
epithet of Saturn. Again, in Sanskrit we find the compound 
word Trivikrama as a name of Yishnu, signifying crossing 
over the three worlds in three steps, which Homer appears to 
have availed himself of, but with that modification and 
softening, which is always requisite to render Oriental 
imagery palatable to the greater sobriety of European taste. 
The passage occurs in the 13th book of the Iliad, and de- 
scribes the march of Neptune from Samothrace to JEgse. 

Avt'ikcl cT t£ vpcog ica-cot'icaro TranraXofVTog, 
Kpanrvd 7togI 7rpo€i€ag' rpsfxe ci' ovpsa [xaicpa icai vXrj 



AND GRAMMAR. 117 

Tioaaiv vtt' aQavciToiai UoaeiSaiovoQ Iovtoq. 

Tplg fJLtv nps^ar IwV to St rkrparov 'iketo TSKfXiop 

Aiyug. 

" Prone down the rocky steep he rush'd along : 
Fierce as he pass'd, the lofty mountains nod, 
The forest shakes ; earth trembled as he trod, 
And felt the footsteps of the immortal God. 
From realm to realm three ample strides he took, 
And at the fourth the distant iEgae shook." Pope. 

xix. When the Turks are particularly desirous of making 
honourable mention of the patriarch Japhet, they describe 
him by the periphrasis Aboul Turk, the father of Turk, 
whom they regard as peculiarly their progenitor ; and it 
appears to me, that the highest eulogium that can be be- 
stowed on the Sanskrit is, that it is the undoubted mother of 
the Greek and Latin languages, which not only contain some 
of the most perfect specimens of literary composition the 
world has ever seen, but are, up to this day, the repositories 
of no inconsiderable portion of human knowledge. Under 
such circumstances, a few additional pages will not be unem- 
ployed in pointing out some unobserved analogies between 
the Asiatic and European languages, and in drawing closer 
those which have been already remarked. 

xx. I would begin by observing, that we find in the 
Sanskrit, what has been called the ^Eolic Digamma, or, in 
other terms, the same radical word in two distinct states, 
being sometimes written with, and sometimes without the 
aspirate letter, which has the power of V in the Shemitic 
alphabets, and which indeed derived both its form and power 
from the Phoenician or Samaritan Yau, and gave birth to the 
Greek Phi, and the Roman F. For instance, we find in the 
Sanskrit, the verbal root Ei, go, whence the Greeks formed 
their Eeo, I flow, of which Payne Knight, in his Analytical 
Essay on the Greek Alphabet, supposes the ancient form to 
have been Pefo (PEFfl), of which we find the prototype in 
the Sanskrit, in the root Eiva, flow. The same distinguished 
scholar also supposes the oldest form of Pleo, navigo, to have 
been Plefo (flAEFH), of which we find the prototype in the 

i s 



118 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

Sanskrit Plava, float. The Hindus appear to have had their 
^Eolians as well as the Greeks, or in other words, some tribes 
were in the habit of using dialects in which aspirates abounded, 
and when by the progress of society the tribes were conso- 
lidated into one great people, and the dialects were melted 
into one language, the aspirated and unaspirated forms of the 
same word assumed the appearance of distinct roots. It is 
the same with the aspirate H, as with what has been called 
the Digamma, as we find in Sanskrit Aya, and Aha, go; 
Ray a, and Raha, go. We also find Tupa, injure, in the as- 
pirated form of Tupha, and Tripa, please (whence by trans- 
position Terpo, delecto), in the aspirated form of Tripha, 
which throws considerable light on the formation of the Greek 
perfects, Te- Tupha, and Te-Terpha, and their derivatives the 
preterpluperfect tenses. 

xxi. We find in Sanskrit the Doric R, redundant, that is, 
various roots of precisely the same signification, written in- 
differently with or without the letter R. We have Sana and 
Srana, give ; Maksha and Mraksha, mix ; Yaja and Yraja, 
go ; Yana and Yrana, produce sound. The Sanskrit also 
may teach us to doubt if the R was primarily redundant, 
whatever it may be now, as in the words Dhu, shake, and 
Dhru, be steady ; the letter Jv has clearly a privative or 
negative power, and Dhru is equivalent to Do not shake ; 
Dhruva in Sanskrit is the name of the polar star : L and R 
in Sanskrit are frequently exchanged, as in the words Hlasa 
and Hrasa, sound ; Bhlasa and Bhrasa, shine. 

xxii. An attentive perusal of Wilkins's Radicals of the 
Sanskrit Language has forced me to come to the conclusion 
that that tongue has been exposed to as many casualties, 
passed through as many revolutions, and contains as many 
irregularities as the Greek and Latin, and that the claim of 
its grammarians to infallibility, though urged with more con- 
fidence, is not one jot more valid ; indeed, in this and most 
similar instances, I have remarked that the legitimate claim 
will generally be found to be in the inverse ratio to the pre- 
tensions. Sanskrit grammarians deduce the verb Dadami, 



AND GRAMMAR. 119 

whence the Greek Didomai, from the root Da; but Dada 
appears to be the true root, and the terminations in the sin- 
gular number, the persons of the verb substantive Astun, to 
be, dropping the S — Dadami, Dadasi, Dadati, and in Greek 
in the same way in the passive voice, Didomai, Didosai, Di- 
dotai. The close sympathy of the Sanskrit with the Greek 
and Latin in this verb is remarkable. From the Sanskrit 
Da we have the Latin Do ; from the Sanskrit Dana, the 
Latin Dono ; and from the Sanskrit Dada, the Greek Di- 
domi. Of Dana, Wilkins remarks that the final N is always 
dropped in composition, which is really saying that it exists 
as a simple root, but is not found as a verb in Sanskrit. At 
page 71. of his Radicals, Wilkins gives us the root Dasa, 
speak or tell, of which the third person of the present tense 
is Dansayati ; also the same root in the sense of bite, of 
which the third person present tense is also Dansayati. But 
the root does not appear to be a genuine root, and to have lost 
Anuswarah, or a point above the A, equivalent to M or JST, 
and accordingly the next word is the root Dans, bite, cognate 
with the Latin Dens, a tooth. 

xxiii. Although grammar in Hindustan is regarded as a 
revelation as well as religion, as we find it actually existing 
in the works of the native grammarians, it assumes the ap- 
pearance of an occult science, which, though divulged, is still 
unintelligible, except to those who possess the key ; and 
reminds us of that apologetic letter from Aristotle to Alex- 
ander, mentioned by Plutarch, in which he assures him that 
his philosophical opinions, though published, were still con- 
cealed. At page 125 of his Grammar, Wilkins says the 
following scheme exhibits in the foregoing order all the ter- 
minations applicable to verbs in the two active forms. It is 
the artificial and technical mode used in some original works, 
wherein redundant letters have been introduced, either as 
signs to denote certain changes to be effected, or merely to 
help the pronunciation. The letter P, as in Tip, Sip, being 
one of these servile redundant letters, is everywhere to be 
dropped in conjugating ; and every final S, as in Thas, Yas, 

I 4 



120 THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

Mas, &c. is regularly changed to Visargah ( • with the power 
of H) ; the I as well as the P, of Dip, Sip, and Ainip, is also 
a redundant letter, used only to give utterance to the con- 
sonants D, S. and M. The D, in Dip, is converted into T, 
and the S, as before, into Visargah : — The N of Nap in two 
persons of the second Preterite is also a servile letter, which 
with the P, being dropped, leaves A only for the real ter- 
mination. The S of Sit and Sis in the third Preterite of 
the common form, is also redundant. The N of Tan is also 
a servile letter. 

xxiv. With all my respect for the memory of the accom- 
plished Sanskrit scholar, the author of the Grammar, I cannot 
but wish that he had referred us to page 186. for the conju- 
gation of the root Asa, in the infinitive mode Astun, to be, 
from which, by returning to the scheme of terminations at 
page 132., we should have clearly perceived that the Sanskrit 
verb, through all its conjugations^ consists of two perfectly 
distinct parts, the Dhato, or verbal root, which never varies, 
and gives the meaning in a general way, while the modifica- 
tions of that meaning in the different persons and tenses are 
effected by the aid of the auxiliary verb, to be, as in English 
and most of the languages of modern Europe ; and that this 
fact must have been earlier observed and admitted, but for 
the circumstance that the verb Astun, to be, is both irregular 
and defective in Sanskrit, as indeed it is in Persic, Greek, 
Latin, and most other tongues ; nor must we be surprised at 
discovering in language, as in many other things, that that 
which is most used is at the same time most worn and most 



changed. The Sanskrit 


verb substantive 


is as under : — 


Singular. 

1. Asmi — Sum 

2. Asi — Es 

3. Asti — Est 


Dual. 
Svah 
Sthah 
Stah 


Plural. 
Small — Sumus 
Stha — Estis 
Santi — Sunt ; 


and the scheme of terminations — 




1. Ami 

2. Asi 

3. Ati 


Avah 
Athah 

Atah 


Amah- 
Atha 
Anti ; 



AND GRAMMAR. 121 

from which we may clearly perceive that the latter is formed 
from the former, simply by dropping S. Here we have the 
real terminations totally freed from those servile or redun- 
dant letters, which answer little other purpose, as used in the 
native grammars, than to make us understand what the Sans- 
krit is not, not what it is, and in which the words appear, 
as Bayes in the Rehearsal proposed to himself that his army 
should take towns, in disguise. 



122 



CHAP. XIII. 

ON THE MEDIAN LANGUAGES — THE ZENDISH AND PEHLVI. 

" From Arachosia, from Candaor east, 
And Margiana to the Hyrcanian cliffs 
Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales ; 
From Atropatia and the neighbouring plains 
Of Adiabene, Media, and the south 
Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven." 

Paradise Regained, book iii. 

I. Of the language or languages spoken in ancient Media, 
we possess very few specimens that can be entirely relied on. 
Adelung gives the following examples of the Zend and the 
Pehlvi: — 

{Tshekhre, Sukhter, Esmene, 
Spereze Heaven, Sky. 
Za, Zao, Zemo, Zemeno Earth. 

|" Tsherk, Shmeha, Seper Heaven, Sky. 

Pehlvish. -J Zivand, Arta, Damik, Leka, 

Bamih Earth. 

Sup. Ency. Brit., Art. Language. 

All these words are analogous to what may be found in the 
Persic, Tartaric, Chaldee, and Arabic. 

ii. A few Median words occur in Herodotus, who informs 
us that they called a bitch Spaca, and Larcher, his French 
translator, says that Spac is the name of a dog in modern 
Hyrcania. The etymology of Ecbatana appears to be 
Persic, from Ak, lord, and Ba tanha, alone. In the Book 
of Ezra, Ecbatana is called Achmetha, which seems to be 
the same Persic word Ak, prefixed to Media slightly 
altered. 

We are informed by Strabo, that the Medes called an 
arrow Tigris, and in Persic we have the word Tij, an arrow, 
which with Pa, the mark of the oblique case, and a Greek 



THE MEDIAN LANGUAGES. 123 

termination, would produce something very like Tigris. The 
Persians themselves call the Tigris Tir, which in that 
language also signifies an arrow. I am not aware that there 
is in existence any work which has any pretension to be 
regarded as a specimen of the language of Persia, or Media, 
older than Ferdousi, unless we have recourse to the Zend 
Avesta, real or pretended, of Anquetil du Perron. 

in. He informs us, that the Zend alphabet is composed of 
forty- eight characters, of which sixteen are vowels, and 
thirty-two consonants ; but that the genuine letters amount 
to no more than thirty-five, twelve vowels and twenty-three 
consonants. The Zendish, like the Hebrew, the Arabic, 
and the modern Persic, is written from the right hand to the 
left. The circumstance which chiefly distinguishes it from 
these languages is the mode of writing the vowels, which are 
expressed at full length, and discriminated, whether long or 
short, by appropriate characters, as in the Sanskrit. The 
construction of the language is simple, and the rules of 
syntax few. The formation of the tenses of the verbs is 
very much like the Persic. The following list contains 
some of the most remarkable words I have noticed in going 
through Du Perron's vocabulary, together with their analogies 
with other languages. (Tom. iii. p. 424.) 

Zendish Words. Analogies. 

I ■ , . f Ast, Persic. 

Aste ' lieis i Esti, Greek. 

Astern, the bones Atsem (Hebrew), bone. 

Aspo, ahorse Asp, Persic. 

. , . . , , f Ashta, Sanskrit. 

Aschte, eight | Hisht, Persic. 

Bakhsched, he gives Bakshid, Persic. 

Besch, two Bis (Latin), twice. 

Bamie, fertile land Bum (Persic), earth. 

Khschethro, a king Shah, Persic. 

P Dogdo, the mother of Zoroaster, 
Dogde, girl Quaere^ i.e. a virgin, as his birth was 

[ miraculous. 

Doue, two Dou, Persic. 

Dato, given Dadah, Persic. 

Zeste, hand Dast, Persic. 

Zemo, earth Zemin, Persic. 



124 THE MEDIAN LANGUAGES. 

Zendish Words. Analogies. 

rj ,, f Ta, Sanskrit. 

Za ' earth ' 1 Da, Greek (Doric). 

Staranm, the stars Starah (Persic), a star. 

Sreono, horn Seringa, Sanskrit. 

Se, three Seh, Persic. 

Ghnao, females Gune (Greek), a woman. 

***■ ^ { ISSl Waxon. 

***» {q^lX?- 

Goschte, ear Gosh, Persic. 

Medo winP X Mead ' honey-wine, English; from 

Medo, wine | MadhvL (Sanskrit), honey. 

Meschio, man Maschio (male), Italian. 

Ma, no Ma, Sanskrit and Arabic. 

Manm, me Man Am (Persic), I am. 

Mrete, mortal Mriti, Sanskrit. 

f Nar, Persic. 
Na, male A Nara, Sanskrit. 

[ Aner (Greek), a man. 

Yeheschtem Behesht (Arabic), Paradise. 

Yeedem, intelligent Yidan (Sanskrit), knowing. 

Yatem, wind Yatah, Sanskrit. 

Jekere, the liver Jecur, Latin. 

ti j f Hede, Egyptian. 

Hede ' now lEde, Greek. 

Hapte, seven Heft, Persic. 

Houo, himself Hooa (Hebrew), he. 

Jare Year, English. 

m i i. c f Chatur, Sanskrit. 

Tchetvere, four \ r\ * r *• 

' ^ Quatuor, Latin. 

t> xl -, f Patha, Sanskrit. 

Petho ' road { Path/English. 

•td -, n , f Pada, Sanskrit. 

Pade ' f00t { Pede, Italian. 

Thre Three, English. 

Thvanm, thee Twan (Sanskrit), thou. 

IV. Anquetil du Perron derives the word Pehlvi from 
Pehlou, which, according to him, signifies strength. In 
this language, as well as in the Zendish, the mode of writing 
is from right to left. Its alphabet is composed of nineteen 
characters, which are obviously much like the Zendish, and 
which give twenty-six values, consisting of twenty- one con- 
sonant and five vowel sounds. (Tom. iii. page 426.) 



THE MEDIAN LANGUAGES. 125 

PeMvi Words. Analogies. 

Iedeman, tlie hand Yad, Hebrew and Arabic. 

. , , . f Ast, Persic. 

Ast ' heis 1 Est, Latin. 

Bandeh, a slave ,. Bandha, bind, Sanskrit. 

Sosia, ahorse Sus, Hebrew. 

Ascht, eight Hesht, Persic. 

Anhouma, the planet Jupiter. 

Lab, lip Leb, Persic. 

Bahar, spring Ber (Bijp), Ionic Greek. 

Vahar, spring Yer, Latin. 

Note. — Here we may perceive 
that both the Greek and Latin words appear to be derived from 
Oriental sources, and that it is not necessary to suppose the 
existence of the iEolic Digamma to account for the formation 
of the Latin Yer from the Greek Ear or Er ; and, as the Greek 
Omicron appears to have been derived from the Syriac Yau, 
which was both o, oo, and v, if we suppose the letter to have 
retained its consonant character in the early ages of Greece, 
there is no difficulty in reading the Greek words Oacog and Otvog, 
like the Latin Yicus and Yinum, without supposing the exist- 
ence of any extraneous character like the iEolic Digamma. 
The Greek Ear appears to me to be cognate with the Hebrew 
Aor, light, the sun. 

Dou, two Also Persic. 

Zari, river Jaro, Egyptian. 

Toun, body Tan, Persic. 

Zivad, he lives Jivati, Sanskrit. 

Dehom, tenth Dahum, Persic. 

Din, law Din, Arabic. 

Tchaschm, eye, Chasm, Persic. 

Roschnesch, light Roshana, Persic. 

Toban, powerful Tobi (Arabic), a king. 

Daman and Zaman, time Zanin, Persic. 

Zamestan, winter Zamistan, Persic. 

Ahider father I Ab ' Hebrew and Arabic. 

Abicler, tatner | p^ Pergic> 

Gaiomard Kaiomorts, the name of the first man. 

Madeh, female Maid, English. 

Meh, great Maha, Sanskrit. 

r»- • , • f Pirouz, Persic. 

Pirouzgar, victorious | Firo ^ ^^ 

-r.. r f Jigar, Persic. 

Djeguer, liver | -^ ^^ 

-~ , , , f Damm, Arabic. 

Damma, blood 1 tv • tt -u 

' I Dammim, Hebrew. 

f Sanat, Arabic. 

Sanat '? ear 1 Shanah, Hebrew. 

-r- . , -. f Zanu, Persic. 

Djanouh, knee | GenU5 Latin . 



126 



THE MEDIAN LANGUAGES. 



Pehlvi Words. Analogies. 

Anita, myrtle, sacred to Venus, from Homonynry, or similarity of name. 
Anaitis, a name of Venus in Armenia (Strabo, lib. ii.). 
Anaitis, a name of Diana among the Lydians (Pliny, 33. c. 4.). 
Anahid, the planet Venus (Du Perron). 
!Nahid, the planet Venus (Persic). 
Dihana and Dihan (Greek), from the two above words reversed. 

Arta, earth ( Eretz, Hebrew. 

I Araz, Arabic. 

Toum, finished ; Tarn (Hebrew), perfect. 

rr -i ii f Taurus, Latin. 

Tora ' abu11 1 Toro, Italian. 

Tchipa, wood to burn Chips, English. 

Hes, behind Chthes (Greek), yesterday. 

Hireh, Membrum Virile Hiran (Sanskrit), Siva (Linga). 

Schmeha, ~) , 

c i . ' Y heaven 

Ibchmia, J 

o ■, . ,i f Shems, Arabic. 

Schemsia, the sun -^ Q1 ', tt , 

L Shemesh, Hebrew. 



f Shamio, Syriac. 
\ Sham aim, Hebrew. 



Schem, name 

Kokba,\ 
Kokpa, J 

Kala, voice 



star 



Shaim, Hebrew. 
Sam, Arabic. 
Kukab, Arabic. 
Kukabim, Hebrew. 
Kol, Hebrew. 
Call, English. 



Mona, God, king 



tt u j f Kalb, Arabic. 

Kalba ' ad0 - 1 Cheleb, Hebrew. 

Lama, bread Lehem, Hebrew. 

Lelia, night Lilah, Arabic. 

Meon (Hebrew), a name of the Sun 

— Baal-Meon, Beth-Meon. 
Menu (Sanskrit), a personification 

of Brahma himself (Wilson). 
Meon, the name of an ancient king 
of Phrygia and Lydia, according 
to Diodorus (the sun). 
Menes, the founder of the Egyptian 

monarchy (the sun). 

Minos, the lawgiver of Crete, the 

echo of the Indian Menu. Minos 

was a name of Jupiter according 

to Sir Isaac Newton. 

Mannus, the son of Tuisco (Tacitus). 

Mona (isle), seat of the Druids, who 

were sun-worshippers. 
Moou, Coptic and Sahidic. 
Ma, Arabic. 
Mayim, Hebrew. 
f Melek, Arabic. 

Malka, king 4 Moloch, Hebrew. 

[ Malcho, Syriac. 



Mia, water 



THE MEDIAN LANGUAGES. 127 

Such are the analogies with other languages, ancient and 
modern, which have occurred to me in going through Du 
Perron's Glossaries of the Zendish and Pehlvi ; and whatever 
may be the antiquity of the works which he wishes to es- 
tablish as the Zend Avesta of Zoroaster, there appears to be 
little doubt that they contain the words of which the pre- 
cedinglists form a part ; and it must be admitted that the 
words themselves raise some presumption of genuineness 
from the numerous points of resemblance they present with 
those languages of Asia, respecting the antiquity of which 
there cannot be any dispute. 



128 



CHAP. XIV. 

ON THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. THE DERI AND PARSI. 

" Persepolis, 
His city, there thou seest, and Bactra there ; 
Ecbatana her structure vast there shows, 
And Hecatompylos her hundred gates ; 
There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream, 
The drink of none but kings ; of later fame, 
Built by Emathian or by Parthian hands, 
The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there 
Artaxata, Teredon, Ctesiphon, 
Turning with easy eye, thou mayst behold." 

Paradise Regained, book iii. 

I. Richakdson supposes that the present Persian Alpha- 
bet, which, with the exception of four letters, agrees with the 
Arabic, is not older than the seventh century, and was intro- 
duced into that country by the Arabian conquest (Prelim. 
Dissert, p. 7.). Sir William Jones says, the inscription 
behind the horse of Rustam, which Niebuhr has given us, 
is apparently Pehlvi, and might with some pains be 
deciphered. It has since been translated by the Baron de 
Sacy, and turns out to be almost pure Chaldee written in 
Cufic characters, and records the defeat and capture of the 
Roman emperor Valerian by Sapor, king of Persia, of the 
race of the Sassanidas, who died A. D. 273. It would 
be difficult to say whether this distinguished Oriental 
scholar, by translating the inscription in question, has ren- 
dered a greater service to history, or inflicted a heavier blow 
on romance. Rustam, the Persic Hercules, of an indefinite 
antiquity, is metamorphosed into a Persian king of the third 
century of the Christian era ! Perhaps nothing so disastrous 
to antiquarians has occurred since the scouring of the shield 
of Martinus Scriblerus ; and such, I venture to predict, will 
be the case in every instance in which an attempt shall be 
made to extract authentic history from the romance of Fir- 
dousi, or the two Indian epic poems, the Mahabharat and 
the Ramayana. 



THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. 129 

II. Plutarch, describing Alexander's visit to the tomb of 
Cyrus, says, after he had read the epitaph, which was in the 
Persian language, he ordered it to be inscribed also in Greek. 
It was as follows : — " O man, whosoever thou art, and 
whencesoever thou comest (for come I know thou wilt), I am 
Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire — envy me not the 
little earth that covers my body." Both these inscriptions 
exist at this day at Pasargadae, and were copied by Kerr 
Porter. But the Persic is in the arrow-headed character, 
which there is every reason for believing is hieroglyphical, 
and not alphabetical, at least in many instances. If Alex- 
ander, however, read it, it must have been written in the 
common Persic letters then in use ; but minute accuracy is 
not to be expected in such a case as this, and perhaps we are 
not justified in inferring anything farther from this passage 
in Plutarch than that Alexander caused the inscription to be 
translated to him, and made himself master of its meaning.* 

ill. Sir John Malcolm, whose intimate acquaintance both 
with the language and country tends to give much weight 
to all his opinions, has a remark in his History of Persia of 
extreme importance in connexion with the original language 
spoken there. He informs us that the inhabitants of Persia 
may be divided into four great classes, of which the first and 
most powerful, if united, are the native tribes of that nation, 
who continue to live in tents and change their residence with 
the season. The great mass of this part of the population, 
whose habits are pastoral and military, are to be found along 
the ranges of hilly country, which commencing near the en^ 
trance of the Persian Gulf, stretch parallel with its shores to 
Shuster, and from thence taking a north-western direction 
extend up the left bank of the Tigris as high as the province 
of Armenia. The region in question includes Kerman, al- 
most all Fars, a part of Irak, and the whole of Kurdistan. 
The inhabitants of these countries are divided into many 

* This Chapter was written long before the exertions of Lassen, and 
the still more recent ones of Major Wilkinson, had rendered it almost 
certain that portions of the arrow-headed inscriptions were written in an 
alphabetical character. 

K 



130 THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. 

tribes, but there cannot be a stronger proof of their coming 
from one stock than that the languages which they speak are 
all rude dialects of the Pehlvi. There is a considerable dif- 
ference in these dialects, but not so much as to prevent the 
inhabitants of one province from understanding that of ano- 
ther. (Malcolm's Persia, vol. ii. p. 119.) 

IV. Sir John further informs us that these tribes are de- 
nominated Eelauts, a word respecting the etymology of 
which there can hardly be a doubt, as it describes their mode 
of life, and which is certainly the Hebrew and Arabic Ahel, 
or Ohel, tent, and the Arabic Hiat, life, by contraction 
Eelauts, or a people dwelling in tents. When we are told 
by this distinguished writer that these are the native tribes 
of the Persian nation, and that they inhabit Farsistan, or 
Persia Proper, I am disposed to go one step further and 
conjecture that the Hebrew words Pharas, a Persian, and 
Pharash, a horseman, were originally cognate if not identical, 
that Persian described not so much a people speaking a 
particular language, as the manner of life of a people in a 
certain state of civilization, that the armies who, under 
Cyrus, overthrew the Assyrian and founded the Persian 
monarchy were the Nomadic tribes, the people dwelling in 
tents of the region which is at present Persia, that they 
spoke the Pehlvi language or some dialect of the Chaldee, 
and that, at that early period, a Shemitic language prevailed 
from the Mediterranean to the Indus. 

v. All that Herodotus says as to the degree of civilization 
the Persians had attained, at the era of the conquest of 
Assyria, tends to confirm this conjecture ; it is certain, says 
he, that the Persians before their conquest of Lydia were 
strangers to every species of luxury. They were in the 
Nomadic state, and their name indicated as much. From 
the Hebrew Pharash we have the Chaldee form Pharath, 
radical letters Phrth, with the Sanskrit Jan, a man, or per- 
son, Parthian, that is, a horseman.* In the third century of 
the Christian era, we have an inscription commemorating the 

* U*1F -^ars (Arabic), a horse, or mare, Persia. u~J^ Fars (Ara- 
bic), a horseman, Persia, Parthia. 



THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. 131 

defeat and capture of the Roman Emperor Valerian, by 
Sapor, King of Persia, of the race of the Sassanidaa, which 
is written in Cufic characters, and in a dialect of the Chaldee 
language, according to Baron de Sacy ; and according to the 
relation of Anquetil du Perron, about the year A. D. 1400 
the Destour Ardeschir arrives in India from Sistan in Persia 
with a Pehlvi translation of the Vendidat, while in our own 
times Sir John Malcolm, a distinguished Oriental scholar, 
finds the Pehlvi generally spoken in Persia. 

VI. Connecting the preceding particulars with a fact rather 
hinted at than explained by Strabo, we shall not only be 
led to doubt the remote antiquity of the classic Persian, 
or present language of books in that country, but have a 
glimpse of the cause in which it originated, and of the mode 
in which it was gradually formed. He says, that in the age 
of Alexander it was the Indus which separated India from 
Ariana, situated to the west of the former, and at that time 
possessed by the Persians, but that at a subsequent period a 
great part of Ariana was given by the Macedonians to the 
Indians. There can be little doubt that the Ariana of 
Strabo is the word which Sir William Jones writes Iran, 
and which in the native characters is spelt Airan. That 
geographer says the name of Ariana extends over a part of 
Persia, of Media, of northern Bactriana, and of Sogdiana, 
and in fact the people of all these countries speak nearly the 
same language. The geographical distribution of the various 
people of Ariana is as follows : — Near the Indus, and to the 
south of Paropamisus, is a nation deriving its name from that 
mountain chain ; more to the south still are the Arachotas, 
and next the Gedrosians, who occupy the sea-coast. To the 
west of the Paropamisans are the Arii ; and of the Ara- 
chotse and Gedrosians, the Drangaa. The people of all the 
countries lying to the west and along the banks of the Indus 
were transferred from the dominion of the Persians to that 
of the Indians. Alexander in the first instance expelled the 
Arianians, and settled colonies there, but eventually Seleucus 
Nicator ceded them to Sandracottus in a matrimonial treaty, 
and received in exchange for them five hundred elephants, 

K 2 



132 THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. 

(Strabon par Coray, torn. v. livre 15. pp. 10 and 104.) 
May we not, with much probability, date from this period 
the formation of the modern Persic, and account in this way 
for the numerous words it has in common with the Sanskrit ? 
From the ascendancy of the Indian settlers introduced into 
Persia by Sandracottus and his successors, the Zendish and 
Pehlvi fell into disuse, and a language more analogous to the 
Sanskrit prevailed. This, at a much later period, was de- 
nominated the Deri, or the language of the court, and may 
be regarded as the classical language of Persia, and that in 
which their best books are written, the works of Sacli, Hafiz, 
and above all the Shah Namah of Firdousi, which, as it 
contains the smallest mixture of Arabic, must, I suppose, be 
regarded as the purest specimen of Persic in existence. 

vii. Herodotus says that the ancient Persians were called 
Cephenes by the Greeks, and by themselves and their neigh- 
bours Artaei. The latter word appears to be formed from 
the Pehlvi word Arta, earth, and the Hebrew Hai, or Chai, 
life, and to correspond in meaning as nearly as possible with 
the Greek word Autochthones, and the Latin Aborigines, 
implying not that they were born of the earth, as the poets 
feigned of the Titans, but that they were the oldest known 
inhabitants of the country, and that no trace or tradition 
existed of their having migrated from any other. Herodotus 
also mentions the word Angareion as Persic, and describing 
what we should call travelling post, and his accuracy is con- 
firmed by the circumstance of our finding Angari in Jose- 
phus in the sense of messengers, but I can find nothing like 
it in modern Persic. Plutarch informs us that the name of 
Cyrus was derived from that of the sun, and Khur is still 
the literal word for that luminary, which, with a Greek ter- 
mination, becomes Cyrus. 

viii. The nature of my plan would now lead me to make 
some remarks on the grammatical arrangements and pecu- 
liarities of the Persic language ; but as I have already done 
so in another work *, to avoid repetition, I prefer referring 

* On the Origin and Ramifications of the English Language, 8vo. 
London, 1845, 



THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. 133 

the reader to that, and proceed to give a list of some of the 
most remarkable words I have observed. 



Persic Words. Analogies. 

Abtakhash, the first of Alexander's successors according to the 

Persians and Arabians, who reigned in Persia, Antiochus. 

This extraordinary reading is produced merely by the 

erroneous position of a point or dot. In Persic and Arabic, 

b (■?), and n (•'), are precisely the same as to form. An- 
takhush differs very little from Antiochus. 
Abasta, or Avesta, the name of a book which the Magi of 
Persia attribute to the Patriarch Abraham, whom they 
suppose to be the same with Zoroaster. 
Atish, fire Aish (Hebrew), fire ; originally pro- 
bably the same word, the change being merely in the diacritical 
points, the shape of t and i, in Persic, being perfectly similar. 
See Abtakhush. 

Aray, decoration Array, English. 

Arjab, an ancient king of Turkistan. 

Note. — Rather Darius Hystaspes, from Arj, honour, and 
Asb, horse, as he was elected to the throne of Persia from 
the neighing of his horse. 

Ispanak, or Isfanaj Spinach, English. 

Ayaridah, and Khurdah, two books of the Magi, Parsi, Guebres, 
or disciples of Zoroaster, or Zerdusht. 

Note. — The etymology of Khurdah implies Given by the 
sun, from Khur, sun, and Deh, giver, in this circumstance 
agreeing with the Indian Vedas and Laws of Menu, and 
the Egyptian books of Hermes. — Zoroaster, or Golden Star, 
was merely a name of the sun. 

Aydun, God Adon (Hebrew), Lord. 

Bazand, or Pazand, the principles of the Book of Life. 

Bazirah or Pazirah, an hour. 

Basaman or Pasaman, a good man. 

Basij or Pasij, a swallow. 

Basidan or Pasidan, to guard. 

Bashan or Pashan, an inner garden. 

Bashin or Pashin, bark, chips. 

Note. — Probably all these various readings originated in 
inattention to the diacritical points, B and P in other respects 
being precisely the same letter in Persic. Hundreds of words 
in Persic and Arabic originated from confounding the con- 
sonants in this way, and using an imperfect alphabet. Nu- 
merous letters are distinguished from each other solely by 
the diacritical points, and they were neglected in writing. 
Bal, the heart, also Arabic, reversed... .Laib (Hebrew), the heart. 

Bach, a child, a boy Note. — With a Greek termination 

Bacchus,— 
" Bacchus ever fair and ever young." — Dryden's Ode. 
K 3 



134 THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. 



Persic Words. Analogies. 

Baichah, boy, child, ivy. 

Note. — The ivy was clearly sacred from Homonymy. See 
Anita, myrtle, in the list of Pehlvi words. 

Bakhtar, the east Hence, Bactriana. 

•Buran, sharp, cutting Burin (French), an engraving tool. 

Barsh, Barshan, ivy. 

Note. — Though Persic words, the difference appears to 
arise from the Arabic Tenwin, or Nunnation, Perhaps the 
absence or presence of this mark accounts for the difference 
between Babel and Babylon, and Sid, lord, one of the names 
of the sun, and Sidon in Phoenicia, a city dedicated to the 
sun, or Alcides — Arabic, Al Sid, the Lord, with a Greek 
termination, Alcides . 

Bostan, a garden, from Bui, fragrance, and Stan, place. 

Bui, the nose, preceded by Istan, place, Istambul, Constanti- 
nople, from its situation, that is, the Place of a Cape. Bui 
in this instance it is used precisely like the northern Ness. 

tv , , , , , r f Besch (Zendish), two. 

Bist, twenty, contracted from j Deh ( £ ersic)j ^ 

Bin, seeing , Bin (Hebrew), to see. 

Pak, pure, chaste Naki (Hebrew), the same word by 

a change of the diacritical points, N and P in other respects 
being the same letter in Persic. 

Puf, a blast of wind Puff, English. 

Tak, the tendril of a vine Note. — Probably in Greek Bac- 
chus; and still more probably Iacchus, from a change of the 
diacritical points, the forms of the letters b, i, and t, in Persic 
being precisely similar. 

Tarist, three hundred From Traya, three, and Sat, a hun- 
dred (Sanskrit). 

Tan, the body, person With Tit (Hebrew), clay, prefixed, 

Titan (Greek), i. e. Terras Filius. 

Tundar Thunder, English. 

Jadwal, a river Also Arabic, with Kebir (Arabic), 

great, the, Guadalquiver in Spain. 

Jastun, to spring forward, assail... "1 T . rp , -& v t 

Justan, to seek * j Joust or T °™ment, English. 

Jugh Yoke, English. 

Chartah, skin, leather ( ^ ar + ta ( Lat f)' P a P er ' .. 

L Lnarta membranacea, vellum. 

nui~ « +*.;«« f Chose, French. 

ChlZ ' \ thm % I Cosa, Italian, 

Drust, right, true Droist, Old French. 

Dawist, two hundred, probably corrupted from Deh, ten, and 

Bist, twenty, i. e. ten twenties. 
Dih, a village ; probably from containing ten (Deh) houses, and 

corresponding with our English tything. 
Dikhan, the chief of a village, from the above, and Khan, lord, 
t corresponding with our tything-man. 



THE LANGUAGES OF PERSIA. 135 

Persic Words. Analogies. 

Day, the Deity, the good principle { ^eus, Latin.' 
Disah, variegated. Probably from Du, Seh, two, three: like 
Yachdav (Hebrew), together, from Yek, Du (Persic), one, 
two ; and Alphabet, from Alpha, Beta, the first two letters of 
the Greek alphabet. 

Diw or Div, a demon, a genius ... { D^rSj^i® 04 

Rustak, a village j Rustick (English), pertaining to 

' ° (_ the country. 

Zab, a fountain, from Zi, living, and Ab, water. 

Sa, like .... So, English. . 

Sal, a year Perhaps this word is related to the 

Latin Sol, the sun. Sal, a year, from the revolution of Sol, the 

sun. 

Sarjang, a leader { Se g; ant ( En S lish )> either in war or 

Surkh, red Note. — This word is applied by the 

Persians to Salmon, and appears to form the first syllable in Sur- 
Mullet. 

Sarma, cold , . .With the Arabic Hi at, life, and Jan 

(Sanskrit), man, Sarmatians, those who live in the cold, or inhabit 
a high northern latitude. The word appears to be generic, and 
as indefinite as the Greek term Hyperboreans, with which it 
nearly corresponds. 

Sifnidan, to blow a flute > Souffler (French), to blow. 

Shah, a king. Shah-tarab, a satrap. Tarab, earth, and perhaps a province. 

Kaliwan or Kalivan (w is interchangeable with b, Richardson). 

Kaliban Note. — This name of one of the 

most extraordinary creations of Shakspeare's muse appears to 
be significant, and to mean " an adorer of fire." Caliban, de- 
scribing his first acquaintance with Prospero, says that the latter 
then taught him " how to name the bigger light, and how the 
less that burn by day and night." Warton, in his observations 
on the Tempest, remarks that the name of Ariel came from the 
Talmudical mysteries ; and Stevens says, " No one has hitherto 
been lucky enough to discover the romance on which Shaks- 
peare may be supposed to have founded this play." Though 
the romance should be Aurelio and Isabella, printed in Italian, 
as Collins the poet conjectured, it is highly probable that parts 
at least of that were borrowed from some Oriental fable. 

Tru cT,^f J Kit, a short fiddle. 

lut, snort | Katan (Hebrew)j 1Ittle# 

Kaak, biscuit Cake, English. 

Kaf, the palm of the hand Caph, Hebrew. 

Kilid, a key Kleidos (Greek), gen. of Kleis. 

Kalizah, a cup for water Chalice, English. 

Kiwan, the planet Saturn Chiun, Hebrew. 

k 4 



136 THE LANGUAGES OF PEKSIA. 

Persic Words. Analogies. 

Gar, a particle which, when sub- \ Note. — It is cognate with the Persic 
joined to a word, denotes agency. J Kar, an action; and occurs as a 

verb in Scottish. " It gars me 

greet," i. e. " It makes me cry." 

n- j , i . , t rn n • • fFrom Gird, a circle, and Ab, water: 

Girdab, a whirlpool (Gaf, g, is m- J , transposition with a Greek ter- 

terchangeable with Kaf, k.). 1 b ? transposition, witn a ^reeK ter- 

° I mmation, Chary bdis. 

Grft (Radical lette rs ), taken { ih ^j^^^ ^ " ^^ 

n -x-l i7< t J.- f Garment (English), that which is 

Garm, warm, with Ens, Latin ... < K ° y ' 

' ' ' i warm. 

n . . f Cry, English. 

Gri, weeping | Gridare (Italian), to cry out. 

Gaw, the sun Ge, Chinese. 

Mar, used for Mader Mere (French), mother. 

Maru, mother Note. — We have Mount Meru in 

India, the residence of the Gods ; and probably both words 
have some connexion with the fabulous Greek account of the 
birth of Bacchus, from the Meros, or thigh of Jupiter. 

Mam a mother -f Mamma > English. 

"| Mamma (Latin), a breast. 

Murdar, a dead body Murder, English. 

Marz, boundary of a country Lord of the Marches, English. 

ivr . ■■ ■. f Margarites, Greek. 

Marwarid,apearl | Margarita/Latin. 

Mizmar, a flute or psaltery Mizmor (Hebrew), a song. 

Majn, a small shield Magain (Hebrew), a shield. 

Mushku, a temple Mosque, Turkish. 

Nab a prince or chief -f ^ eb (Egyptian), Lord ' 

' x " \ Nebo, identical with Baal, the sun. 

Was, for Bas, enough Basta, Italian. 

Hrw, brave, warlike Hero, English. 

Hulk, shipwreck j Hulk ($*&&>> . a shi P without her 

' i L masts and rigging. 

Hoi, true, just . Holy, English. 

xt ,-. f Khur, the sun, Persic. 

Hur, the sun -{ A \ Vr i, 

|_ Aor, the sun, Hebrew. 



137 



CHAP. XV. 

GREECE. THE GREEK ALPHABET. THE GREEK VERB. 

" On the iEgean shore a city stands, 
Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil ; 
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
And eloquence, native to famous wits 
Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, 
City or suburban, studious walks and shades. 
See there the olive grove of Academe, 
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird 
Trills her thick- warbled notes the summer long ; 
There flowery hill Hymettus, with the sound 
Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites 
To studious musing ; there Ilissus rolls 
His whispering stream : within the walls then view 
The schools of ancient sages ; his, who bred 
Great Alexander to subdue the world, 
Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next." 

Paradise Regained, book iv. 

I. The subject of the Greek language and grammar opens 
so vast a field of inquiry, that I could not pretend to do any- 
thing like justice to it, could I make it the theme of my 
whole work, instead of a short chapter. Besides, so much 
has already been done in this way, and more especially by 
the camparatively recent labours of Buttman, Thiersch, and 
Matthiae, that perhaps the Greek language has already re- 
ceived all the illustrations it is susceptible of receiving from 
sources merely Greek ; and I should shrink from the task in 
despair, were I not of opinion that all the advantages have 
not been derived from the Oriental languages which they are 
abundantly capable of affording, and convinced that this de- 
partment of literature has hitherto been little cultivated in 
England, because few are even yet aware of the rich harvests 
it may be made to produce. On the present occasion I must 
confine my observations to the formation of the Greek al- 
phabet and the origin of the Greek verb. It may not be 
unnecessary to premise, that my chief authorities for the 
forms of the letters are " Explication de quelques Medailles 



138 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

Grecques et Pheniciennes avec une Paleographie Numis- 
matique, par M. L. Dutens, 4to. Londres, 1776/' and "In- 
scriptiones Graecae Vetustissimse, H. I. Rose, 8vo. Cantab. 
1825." 

Alpha. 

H- Samaritan or Phoenician Aleph. 

A complete and critical account of the Greek alphabet 
would comprise at least three particulars — first, the oldest 
name of every letter, the primitive language from which the 
name was derived, and its precise signification in that lan- 
guage ; secondly, all the various forms the letter has assumed 
from the origin of alphabetical writing, arranged in exact 
chronological order; and thirdly, its power or its various 
sounds as a vowel and consonant through the lapse of suc- 
cessive centuries, as almost all the vowels have, under some 
circumstances, a consonant power \ and many of the con- 
sonants, more especially the liquids, L, M, N, and R, a 
vowel one. Indeed, L and R in Sanskrit bear the name and 
are arranged among the vowels. The name of the Greek 
letter Alpha is usually thought to have been derived from 
Aleph, the first letter of the Phoenician and most of the 
Shemitic alphabets, and probably from that quarter it came, 
together with the letter itself ; but as the name is not sig- 
nificant in any of these languages that I am aware of, or in 
other words does not explain itself, it is worth while to look 
for another etymology. I believe that Alpha is not so much 
essentially the name of the letter, as an adjunct or epithet 
descriptive of its nature, and that it is the Sanskrit word 
Alpa, little, and was intended to answer the same purpose 
with respect to A, as the similar epithets Micron and Mega 
appended to O, and Psilon to E and U, that is, to inform us 
of the length or quantity of the vowel in poetical composi- 
tions. The Shemitic alphabets have two forms of A, Aleph 
short, and Ayin long, and equivalent to, and representing 
two short vowels, and in some cases susceptible of being re- 
solved into them. For instance, in Hebrew Aor, written 
with Aleph or single A, signifies the sun and light, while the 
same word written with Ayin, or double A, signifies blind, 
and explains its own meaning if we resolve Ayin into two 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 139 

Alephs, the first of which is privative, Aor, light, Aaor, no 
light, that is, blind. Of the origin and progress of the Greek 
alphabet, we have accounts mythological, poetical, and con- 
jectural, every thing in short except what we particularly 
wish for, that is, historical. Whatever the truth may be, I 
think we should understand the subject better, if we regarded 
the alphabet of sixteen letters, said to have been introduced 
by Cadmus, as the prose alphabet of Greece, and that of 
twenty-four, as existing in the works of Homer, as the poeti- 
cal alphabet. It is quite clear to me, that if such an art as 
that of music had never been invented, or even if music and 
song had not been habitually conjoined, as we know they 
were in every stage of Greek epic, dramatic, and lyric poetry, 
we should never have heard of long and short vowels, or long 
and short syllables. In fact what are the Greek poetical 
metres or measures ? * Ancient musical compositions, of 
which just one half has come down to us, the other being 
irrecoverably lost. Music consists of two parts, tune and 
time. What the Greek tunes were, hardly a vestige remains 
to assist us to form an idea of; and Dr. Burney, on being 
shown some specimens of ancient musical notation of that 
people, professed himself totally unable to conjecture with 
what modern notes they corresponded, and regarded the 
inquiry as altogether desperate, profoundly versed as he was 
both in the theory and practice of the art. But we possess 
the time, in the various poetical metres that have come down 
to us, and I believe that what is called a short syllable in 
poetry was short, because it coincided with a short note of 

* " At the end of the Oxford edition of Aratus, &c, there are some 
learned observations on the ancient music by Chilmead, and a few frag- 
ments of ancient tunes to some Greek odes and hymns reduced to our 
modern notation. 

" It came into my mind that I had perused them long ago, and upon 
looking now into the book, I find two remarks of the editor agreeing with 
my own notions : one, that the time of the musical notes answered to the 
quantity of the syllables ; the other, that the music of the ancients was 
very plain and unadorned." (Jortins' Tracts, vol. i. p. 28.) The whole 
of the Letter to Mr. Avison, of which the above extract forms the post- 
script, is extremely curious and replete with learning and original 
thought. 



140 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

the musical accompaniment, and long because it coincided 
with a long one, and for no other reason whatever, and 

THAT IN MANY INSTANCES IT IS IN VAIN TO SEEK FOR 
THE CAUSE OF LONG AND SHORT SYLLABLES IN THE 
NATURE OF LANGUAGE, AS THE CAUSE WAS ALTOGE- 
THER EXTRANEOUS TO LANGUAGE, AND DEPENDED ON 
THE NOTES, LONG OR SHORT, OF THE MUSICAL ACCOM- 
PANIMENT. It is remarkable that in Sanskrit very many 
words are written indifferently with the long or short vowels, 
and that in the Egyptian language which uses Greek cha- 
racters chiefly, a great number of words are written both 
with Epsilon and Eta, Omicron and Omega. What was 
the Licentia Poetica as practised by Homer and the earliest 
rhapsodists? It must be remembered that their composi- 
tions were sung or recited to the accompaniment of a lyre 
or some other musical instrument ; and I believe the poet 
had the option of pronouncing all the vowels long or short, 
as suited his convenience, to make his verse harmonize with 
the tune he was singing. Does not every musical composer 
and singer still take the same liberty with every language 
spoken in Europe ? The words of a song with a musical 
accompaniment are hardly intelligible, because their accent 
and usual pronunciation are completely changed, the lan- 
guage being subordinate, and a slave to the music. What 
are the rules of prosody but an enumeration of the expe- 
dients resorted to by the poet, to adapt and accommodate 
the length of the syllables of his verses to the musical notes 
to which they were sung? As an agreement between the 
two was imperative, and the music could not change, the 
language necessarily did. 

ii. Beta. 
£. Beta from Dutens. 
||. Beta from Rose. 

^. Biarkan from the Runic Alphabet in Mallet's Northern 
Antiquities. 

v Beta, the name of the second letter of the Greek, appears 
to be derived from Beth, the second letter of the Phoenician 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 141 

and other Shemitic alphabets, but not so the form, of which I 
cannot find the prototype in any Oriental language. v Beth 
in Hebrew, and most of the Shemitic languages, with slight 
modifications, signifies a house ; and as the forms of the let- 
ters have not the most distant resemblance to a house, they 
do not appear to be so old as the name. I believe, however, 
the etymology of Beth in the Shemitic languages to be Bet 
(Coptic), costa, a rib, and it is certain that in Hebrew, 
Ethiopic, Syriac, and Samaritan, Beth has much more resem- 
blance to a rib joined to the spine, than to a house. The 
Greek form of Beta is probably older than that of either of 
the Shemitic alphabets ; and what is rather singular, is the 
very counterpart of the Runic, which has induced me to give 
the latter a place, and it is remarkable enough that Biarkan, 
the name of the letter in the Runic alphabet, signifies house 
in Persic, as Beth does in Hebrew. It is further remarkable 
that Biarkan is evidently compounded of two tents, the 
primitive dwellings of the human race, and more especially 
of a pastoral people, and the form of a tent in China, where 
nothing changes, is said to predominate in the architecture 
of that nation, and still attests their Nomadic origin. 

III. Gamma. 

*r Samaritan, or Phoenician Ghimel. 

Orientalists are fond of deriving the name of this letter 
from the Hebrew word Gimel, or Gamal, a camel, and if 
this be the true etymology the Syriac is probably the oldest 
form, as it bears the closest resemblance to the long neck of 
that animal. Dutens supposes the form he has given of 
Gamma to be by much the most ancient of the letter, in 
which I believe he was entirely mistaken, and that the form 
given by Rose has much stronger claims to be regarded as 
such. Dutens copied it from the medals of Gelo and Agri- 
gentum, the workmanship of which is extremely rude, and 
supposes that it passed into the Roman C ; I strongly sus- 
pect, however, that that letter, or at any rate its soft sound, 
was derived from one of the forms of Sigma, and that 
Dutens's Gamma is a common Roman G badly formed. 



142 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

iy. Delta. v 

^ Samaritan, or Phoenician Daleth. 

The name of the letter in Hebrew is Daleth, which sig- 
nifies a door, to which, however, the character in that lan- 
guage bears very little resemblance. There can be little 
doubt that both the form and name of the Greek letter were 
derived from the Phoenician alphabet. 

v. Ei (Epsilon). 

3 Samaritan, or Phoenician He. 

The forms of this letter, as given by Rose, agree with that 
of Dutens, and vary very little, except as they are written 
from left to right, or from right to left. He, the Oriental 
name of the letter, is not significant, or in other words does 
not explain itself, either in Hebrew or any other Shemitic 
language that I can discover. Plutarch informs us that the 
ancient name of this letter in Greek w r as Ei, and this name 
it still retains in the Coptic and Sahidic alphabets, in which 
we find the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet ar- 
ranged nearly in the same order, together with eight addi- 
tional. Every thing connected with the Greek alphabet 
appears to be sheer mythology, from Cadmus and his sixteen 
Phoenician letters, to the final settlement of the Athenian 
alphabet, in the archonship of Euclid. Cadmus himself is 
the mere creation of fiction, his name being derived from the 
Hebrew word Kedem, the east, or the sun. He is a mere 
shadow, vox et prgeterea nihil, and every thing connected 
with him appears to be as unsubstantial as himself. He is 
said to have brought only sixteen letters into Greece, and we 
cannot discover any Shemitic alphabet which contains fewer 
than twenty-two. This is the case with the Phoenician or 
Samaritan, the Hebrew and the Syriac; and not only do 
these alphabets agree as to the number of letters, but also as 
to their name and power. The Greek alphabet, in the age 
of Homer, is said to have consisted of those sixteen primitive 
Cadmean letters, and yet in every part of his works we find 
the alphabet as complete as it was after the archonship of 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 143 

Euclid, and, what is still more singular, both the Iliad and 
the Odyssey are each divided into twenty-four books, ap- 
parently for no other reason than because the Greek alphabet 
contained twenty-four letters, each of which has given its 
name to a book. I have already remarked, that we learn 
from Plutarch that the name of Epsilon among the ancient 
Greeks was Ei, and that Ei is its name in the Coptic alpha- 
bet, and we actually find it written Ei in one of the epi- 
graphs to the 5th Book of the Iliad. There are two, the 
first being AlojuutJSovs apio-rsla, the bravery of Diomed, and 
the other E2 ftaXku KvOepsiav, "Aprjd re, TvBsos vlos, that is, 
Ei (the name of the letter) the son of Tydeus wounds Yenus 
and Mars. It is remarkable that perhaps the oldest quota- 
tion of the Iliad was made from this book, that by Herodotus 
in the second book of his History (c. 116.), who refers to 
neither letter, number, nor line, but makes use of the first of 
the above epigraphs.* The probability, therefore, is that 
both epigraphs are as old as the age of Herodotus, and per- 
haps even that of Peisistratus. Again, it is remarkable that 
the lines quoted by him are not in the 5th Book of the Iliad 
as.it has come down to us, and do not occur until line 289. 
of the 6th Book. The division of the Iliad, therefore, in the 
age of Herodotus was not what it is at present. That poem 
contains about 15,673 lines; and if we suppose the Greek 
alphabet to have consisted of sixteen letters, and the Iliad to 
have been divided into sixteen books, they will average at 
about 980 lines, and by some such arrangement those quoted 
by Herodotus may have formed part of the 5th Book, which 
however contains 909 lines in its present state. At any rate, 
we are quite certain that the ancient name of the fifth letter 
of the Greek alphabet was Ei, and I regard this as a most 
important fact. The mode in which I purpose to employ it 
is as follows : — We know that Asia was peopled and civi- 
lised before Europe, and that the Greeks and Romans bor- 
rowed their alphabets thence. The next question is, to what 



* 'ETri/jtsfivriTai Sk avrov kv Aioj-irjSsog apiareiri' Xsyei dk ra e~ea ovtoj. , Ev9' 
icav oi ttsttXoi, k. t. X. 



144 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

extent did they, in the first instance, adopt their mode of 
writing. The Phoenicians, in common with the other She- 
mitic people, wrote from right to left, and in that direction 
we find the legends of the earliest Greek medals, and the 
oldest inscriptions in Etruscan, or ancient Greek characters. 
The Oriental nations omitted the vowels in writing to such 
an inconvenient extent, that their descendants have endea- 
voured to remedy the defect by the invention of vowel 
points ; and Lanzi, in his Saggio di Lingua Etrusca, assures 
us that this was the case with the Etrurians and other 
people of ancient Italy. We learn from him that E, in some 
instances, was equivalent to the diphthong EI, and he adduces 
the Sigasan inscription as an example of it. (Tom. i. p. 
88.) Payne Knight, in his Analytical Essay on the Greek 
Alphabet, referring to the same document, says " the first 
Sigaaan written about six hundred years before the Christian 
era has EIMI ; but the second copied from it, probably 
about fifty years later, has EMI." (P. 18.) Now I 
believe, that in the early ages of Greece there was no gram- 
matical anomaly in this, and that no one was deceived. 
Accustomed to see the Asiatics omit the vowels in writing 
to a great extent, they themselves did something like it, and 
in many instances read the name of the letter in- 
stead of the letter itself. In the second Sigsean 
inscription E only was written, but they read its name EI, 
and there was no anomaly. This mode of reading is still 
practised invariably in Sanskrit with regard to A short, 
which is always supposed to be annexed to every consonant ; 
and the Anti-Masorists, who wished to do away with the 
Hebrew vowel points, proposed to read instead of them the 
first vowel that occurs in writing the name of every conso- 
nant. 

vi. Zeta. 

We find the elements of this double letter exhibited in 
the Medals of Troezene, in the words Sdeus Eleutherios, i. e. 
Zeus Eleutherios. The Eolians, however, reversed the order 
of the initial letters, and wrote Dseus, Jupiter. 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 145 

VII. Eta. 

3 Phoenician Heth from Dutens. 

H Greek Eta „ „ 

& „ „ Rose. 

Dutens in connexion with this letter says, " The Sigaean 
Inscription supplies us with many important particulars. It 
consists of two parts, of which the one is a repetition of the 
six first lines of the other ; and Chishull has very justly re- 
marked that the upper was engraved some time, perhaps 
fifty years later than the lower, with a view of rendering it 
more clear. In the lower part of the inscription we do not 
find the letters H and 12, the first of which appears only as 
a sign of aspiration; and in the upper this same H (Eta), 
which was then newly introduced, is substituted for E 
(Epsilon), and 12 for O, in those cases in which the pro- 
nunciation required long instead of short vowels: we may 
also perceive that in the upper part of the inscription the 
Attic is substituted for the Eolic dialect. These observations 
make the antiquity of this inscription ascend beyond the 
time of Simonides — how much beyond, it would be difficult 
to determine ; which would be in accordance with the sug- 
gestion of Chishull that the JEsop, of whom the inscription 
makes mention, may have been identical with the celebrated 
fabulist, who was a Phrygian, and consequently resided near 
Sigseum, and flourished about the time of Simonides. Either 
of these proofs places the date of the inscription about the 
year 590, or 600, before Jesus Christ. It presents us with 
the Greek alphabet of that period, and may enable us to 
form conjectures as to the date of those medals on which 
are found letters resembling those of the inscription" (p. 173.). 
Thus far Dutens, but I would remark that in the common 
Biographical Dictionaries, Simonides is said to have flourished 
about B. c. 538 ; and as we find the long vowels in an in- 
scription fifty or sixty years older, they could hardly have 
been introduced into the Greek alphabet by him, and the 
subject requires a few more observations. The form of the 
oldest Greek Eta is Phoenician, and its name is Phoenician, 

L 



146 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

both circumstances constituting a strong presumption as to 
its primitive power. What was that power in the Oriental 
alphabets? Masclef, in his Hebrew Grammar, expressly 
assigns to Heth, the eighth letter of that as well as of the Sa- 
maritan and Syriac alphabets, the character of the Greek Eta, 
and adds, " Differt ab n (He), ut Eta difFert ab Epsilon, id 
est, ut E longum differt ab E brevi, vel potius ut E gutturale 
differt ab E simplici." (p. 12.) I cannot discover any ade- 
quate grounds for believing that Eta was introduced into 
the Greek alphabet at a later period than Epsilon (Ei). The 
latter was most certainly He, H, the fifth letter of the Phoe- 
nician (or Samaritan) alphabet, and the Roman E, and there 
really appears to me to be no more doubt that Eta was the 
Phoenician (or Samaritan) Heth, Q, H, and passed un- 
changed from the second form into the Roman H. 

In the oldest Greek inscription that we possess, or at any 
rate that we can rely on (for we can repose little confidence 
in those of Fourmont), the Sigsean, Eta H, occurs twice 
with precisely the power of the Roman H, that is, of an 
Aspirate letter in the words ^OTO^ I AH and HA<3EU4>0[, 
Haisopus and Hadelphoi, the first written from right to left ; 
and Schotz, in his Coptic Grammar, says, (e H, in vetusto 
Grsecorum alphabeto cum adspiratione pronunciabatur uti 
Athengeus in Deipnosophist. 1. 9. c. 12. testatur. In My- 
sterio Lit. Grgec. Sahidico MSS. etiam ^HTA, appellatur " 
(i. e. Heta), p. 6. Eta, then, in the early Greek alphabet, 
was precisely what it had been in the Phoenician, and what 
it continued to be in the Roman, and the very utmost that 
we can ascribe to Simonides appears to be, that he 

CHANGED THE CHARACTER OP THE LETTER, RETAINING 

the form, and employed what had been a mark of aspi- 
ration as a contraction in writing for expressing long E, 
equivalent to two Epsilon s in time or quantity, and at the 
same time one of the primitive letters of the Cadmean or 
Phoenician alphabet disappeared from the Greek, except so 
far as it was imperfectly represented by the Spiritus Asper, 
£-, and the Spiritus Lenis, -\. 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 147 

viii. Theta. 

Thau, or Tau, the last letter of the Shemitic alphabets, 
seems to correspond with the Greek Theta in power, but in 
no way in form. It appears to me to be one of the very 
oldest letters in existence, to have passed into the Greek 
alphabet directly from the Sanskrit, and not through the 
medium of any of the Shemitic languages, or alphabets, and 
to have been primarily an Hieroglyphic, both in China and 
Egypt. 

© . In the former country signifies the sun, and its name 
is Ge, or Je. 

o. In the second country has the same signification under 
the name of Phre. 

o . Tha or Thah (easily read as That in the Arabic and 
many Oriental languages), in Sanskrit signifies, according to 
Wilson's Dictionary, a circle, a globe, the disk of the sun or 
moon, an idol, a deity, a name of Siva. Tha, a circle, ex- 
plains the essential form of the letter, from which it never 
varied, except, perhaps, in inscriptions on stone, when for 
the sake of convenience it was made square. Its primary 
signification was probably that of the sun, the earliest god 
of the human race, whence it was extended also to the moon, 
and gradually became a general name of deity. Siva is the 
sun, and his wife Parvadhi or Parvati, the moon. By 
reading the v of Siva as o, the Greeks appear to have formed 
Sios, and as u, Zeus. Tha, the Sanskrit name of the as- 
pirate Th, by the addition of final Ta, became the Greek 
letter Theta ; and by the addition of final Os, the Greek 
word Theos, a generic name of deity, as it had previously 
been in the primitive language, the Sanskrit. 

ix. Iota. 

Dutens says that this letter never changed its form among 
the Greeks, but he appears to have been mistaken. 

x. Kappa. 

Scholtz says, that in the Egyptian language Kappa some- 
times supplied the place of Gamma. The form of Kappa 

L 2 



148 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

appears to have varied less than that of almost any other 
letter of the Greek alphabet. 

XI. Lambda. 

2. Samaritan or Phoenician Lamed. 

The form of Lambda in the Sigasan and all the oldest 
inscriptions in Greece Proper and Asia Minor, is precisely 
the same as in what are called the Etrurian inscriptions of 
Italy, the great majority of which are certainly Greek and 
Latin merely in an early and obsolete character. 

xii. Mu. 

2L\ Samaritan or Phoenician Mem. 

The form of Mn in Dutens is that of the Sigaean inscrip- 
tion, the Farnese columns, and the Metapontum medals. 

xiii. Nu. 

ti. Samaritan or Phoenician Nun. 

The Greek letters are found nearly in this shape on the 
inscriptions of Sigasum and Delos, on the medals of Zancle, 
and on the ancient medals of Leontium and Naxos. 

xiv. Xi. 

X^. Xi from Dutens, or rather the elements for which the 
character B was a contraction in writing, Chi and Sigma. 

In Coptic 3 is not unfrequently found resolved into Kappa 
and Sigma, and we find the same letters substituted for it 
in some Greek inscriptions (Lanzi). The -ZEolians reversed 
the order of the letters in many words, and wrote 2K, and 
in this way they may have imparted some meaning to the 
name of the mythological BvOos by writing it ^/cvdos, sl 
Scythian. I am aware that Herodotus writes the word 
BovOos, and that %kv6t)s is the common Greek form of 
Scythian, but my remark refers to a much earlier period. 

xv. Ou (Omicron). 

o. Ouau, or Vau, from Masclef's Syriac Grammar, the 
sixth letter of the Shemitic alphabets. 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 149 

The first question that occurs is, what was the name of 
this letter in the primitive Greek alphabet, before the intro- 
duction of the long vowels, as this is the first step towards 
the truth. Its name in the Coptic alphabet is Ou, and 
Scholtz says, that its modern pronunciation is not that of o, 
but u ; and although it should be admitted that the Greek 
letters of that alphabet are not older than the age of Alex- 
ander, and the accession of the dynasty of the Ptolemies to 
the throne of Egypt, the feeblest gleam of light that can be 
obtained from that, or indeed any other quarter, is not to 
be despised, as there is really nothing transmitted by the 
Greeks, in connexion with their alphabet, on which the 
smallest reliance can be placed. The authority of Hellenius 
is quoted by Plutarch in his treatise on Isis and Osiris, to 
prove that the name of the god was pronounced by the 
priests, not Osiris, but Usiris. But there is better evidence 
than this, and in a quarter where we should least have 
thought of looking for it — the works of Homer in their present 
state, where the name of the letter is written Ou (05), as in 
the Coptic alphabet, in the epigraphs to the 15th books both 
of the Iliad and of the Odyssey. The form of the letter in 
Syriac was O, its name Ouau, and its power, judging from 
that of Wav, the corresponding letter in the Hebrew alphabet, 
not merely that of the vowels o, oo, and u, but of the con- 
sonants v and w ; and as I have already remarked, it is probable 
that oikos and oivov by the early Greeks were pronounced 
like the Latin Vicus and Yinum, without supposing the 
existence of Digamma (which is really the same letter in the 
Samaritan or Phoenician alphabet), or any other extraneous 
character of any sort whatever, but merely that the Greek 
Ou (Omicron) retained the double character of its Syriac 
prototype Ouau, that is, was both vowel and consonant, until 
the introduction of Phi into the Greek alphabet from the 
Ethiopic (in which it exists also as Wav), after which a per- 
pendicular stroke added to Ou (Omicron), thus, (D <l>, denoted 
that it had entirely lost its vowel character, and was con- 
verted into an aspirate consonant with the precise power of 

L 3 



150 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

Digamma, or Roman F, in which language Films might have 
been written <E>ilms, if the letter Phi had been naturalised, 
and in which the Greek <§vco became the Latin Fuo (vide 
Facciolati in voce Fuam). But I wish to point out another 
feature of Orientalism in the letter. The nations speaking 
a Shemitic language wrote from right to left, and omitted 
the vowels to a great extent. The Etruscans, or Italian 
Greeks, wrote in the same mode, according to Lanzi, and the 
early Greek inscriptions are Boustrophedon, or alternately 
from right to left, and from left to right, and may be regarded 
as a connecting link between Asiatic and European writing. 
So far as to the mode of writing, and next as to the primitive 
power of the letters, and here, as we have seen, the Sanskrit, 
perhaps the oldest language of Asia, and undoubtedly the 
immediate mother of the Greek and Latin, never writes A 
short, except at the commencement of a word, which letter is 
always understood to be annexed to every consonant in the 
alphabet, or, in other words, they read not merely the letter, 
but the name of the letter. To save trouble inscriptions on 
stone were generally written with as few words and letters as 
possible. The Romans hardly ever wrote the terminations of 
words, and indeed were so fond of using abbreviations, that 
Gerrard has devoted a volume to explaining the initial letters 
they were in the habit of employing. In the same spirit, I 
suppose the early Greeks to have written the short vowels E 
and O, instead of the diphthongs EI and OT after the ana- 
logy of the Sanskrit, from which the Greek language was 
principally derived. But this produced no ambiguitv, nor 
was it regarded as a grammatical anomaly in the first in- 
stance, as there no doubt existed a clear understanding that 
in such cases the name or the letter, and not merely 
the letter itself, was to be read. We have seen 
from the epigraphs of Homer, that the original name of 
Epsilon was Ei, and of Omicron, Ou, and I entertain not the 
slightest doubt that the ancient Greeks read accordingly, and 
from habit and veneration for antiquity, it is highly probable 
that this mode of writing continued to be employed, long- 
after the final settlement of the Greek, or rather the 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 151 

Athenian alphabet, in the archonship of Euclid.* In con- 
nexion with this subject, Dutens remarks, that in the Sigaean 
inscription, the Genitive ov is expressed by a simple O, and 
that the same circumstance may be observed in the inscrip- 
tion discovered at Athens by the Marquis de Nointel on 
his return from his embassy to Constantinople, of which the 
date may be referred to the year b. c. 450, and he infers 
that the use of a simple O to express the Genitive Case when 
found on any medal may fairly lead us to conclude that it is 
not of inferior antiquity. (P. 175.) 

xvi. Pi. 

r Pi, from Dutens. 

f Pi from Rose. 

It is remarkable that the name of this letter in the Coptic 
alphabet is not Pi but Bi, and that Scholtz defines its power 
by the letters Bi. 

xvn. Rho. 

<\ Samaritan or Phoenician Resell. 

The oldest form of Rho is so much like the most ancient 
one of Alpha, as found in inscriptions and on medals, that 
the two letters must have been frequently mistaken for each 
other. They are quite undistinguishable except by their di- 
rection^ and that disappeared in Boustrophedon writing. I 
have little doubt that the Doric R, redundant, which Strabo 

* " Statuenduni igitur erit, ut vere Thierschius post alios, isto Euclidis 
decreto nihil aliud fuisse contentum nisi ut Ionicas literas in publicis 
monumentis inscribendis adhibere liceret. Quo tempore ergo aut in 
reliqua Grsecia aut in ipsis Athenis percrebuerit usus longarum vocaliuni, 
nemo satis idoneis auctoribus fretus dicere potest. Utilissima procul 
dubio et pame necessaria fuit earum inventio, quod antea quam invectae 
sint, triplicem vicem vocales E et O sustinuerint. E scilicet sibi pro- 
priam potestatem, diphthongi EI et longas vocalis H vim habebat. Vocali 
O eodem modo non sua tantum potestas tribuebatur, sed pro diphthongo 
OY et vocali O ponebatur. Negavit quidem Dawesius E pro El unquam 
a Graecis esse positum, et auctoritatem scriptorum a Tayloro advocatorum 
nullam esse ostendit. Sed frustra negavit ; nihil enim hoc usu notius est, 
quod sine Grammaticorum auctoritate ab exemplis quivis discere potest." 
(Rose, Inscriptiones Grsecae Vetustissimas, Prolegom. p. J 8.) 

L 4 



152 THE GREEK ALPHABET. 

mentions as being found in many words of that dialect, had 
its origin in many instances in an obsolete form of Alpha, the 
Doric characteristic letter, misread. 

xyiii. San (Sigma). 

Shan (i. e. a hill) from the Kou-ouen, or very oldest 
Chinese Hieroglyphics. (Pere Amiot, Lettre de Pekin, 
Plate 1.) 

Oldest form of Sigma given by Dutens and Rose. This 
appears to be the Doric San mentioned by Herodotus, and if 
so, we have the oldest name and form of the letter in Greece. 

xix. Tau. 

f Phoenician Thau from Dutens. 
T" Coptic Dau with the power of D. 

This letter among the Egyptians, as well as the Etruscans, 
expressed the sounds both of Tau and Delta. 

xx. Upsilon. 

The name of this letter in the Coptic alphabet is He, but 
it has no place in the Lexicon, not a single word either in 
Coptic, or Sahidic, commencing with it. Marsh, in his 
Horse Pelasgicse, says, that it was introduced late into the 
Greek alphabet, and that it was frequently used with the 
consonant power of V. Unfortunately, however, we find it 
in the Sigasan inscription, which is generally regarded as the 
oldest authentic one. The real fact is, that all the inscrip- 
tions and medals in existence throw very little light on the 
Greek alphabet, except as to the shape of the letters, and all 
that their authors have transmitted to us, respecting its 
gradual formation, is as apocryphal as the Expedition of the 
Argonauts, or the Tale of Troy. 

xxi. Phi. 
^ I Phi, from Rose. 
In the inscription Naniana, as given by Lanzi, we find not 



THE GREEK ALPHABET. 153 

the contraction, but the elements of it, P and H, in the word 
Ekphanto. (Tom. i. p. 86.) 

xxii. Chi. 

4, Chi, from Rose. 

f\ Chi, from Lanzi. 

In the same inscription, we find the component parts of 
Chi in the letters K and H, of the word Epeukhomenos, 
where the capital Eta is clearly and simply an H, as it had 
been in the Phoenician, and continued to be in the Roman 
alphabet. (Lanzi, torn. i. p. 86.) 

xxiii. Psi. 

nZ From Dutens. 

There is not the slightest doubt, I believe, that the ele- 
ments of this contraction consisted of the characters P and S, 
though I have not been able to find them so written in any 
existing Greek inscription ; they are very commonly sub- 
stituted however in the Coptic dialect, for the contraction, or 
double letter, Psi. 

xxiv. Omega. 

Q Omega, from Dutens. 

n Omega, from Rose. 

The first form does not appear to me to be a distinct 
letter at all, but merely Ou (Omicron) with a mark to de- 
note that it was doubled, or long, the mark in fact which we 
still use in Lexicons to show that a vowel is long, only 
placing it above instead of below the letter. It appears to 
me extremely doubtful, if the miniature character of Omega, 
g>, was not primarily rather Umega, or a contracted mode of 
writing two Upsilons, and the Coptic form of the letter III 
approximates to the Roman W, which, though denominated 
Double U, rather represents double V, and has an aspirate, if 
not a consonant power. 



154 THE GREEK VERB. 

On the Origin and Formation of the Greek Verb. 

xxv. After all that has been written on the subject of 
the Greek language in general, from the earliest grammars 
of Dionysius the Thracian, Apollonius Dyscolus, and Con- 
stantine Lascaris, to the latest and most perfect productions 
of Buttman, Thiersch, and Matthias which apparently leave 
hardly anything to be desired, and more especially after the 
learned treatises of Vincent and Dunbar, devoted expressly 
to the Greek verb, it would naturally be supposed that little 
remains to be said under the head which gives a title to this 
section ; but this is so far from being the case, that every 
part of the subject is still involved in doubt and uncertainty, 
and the best scholars are by no means agreed as to the origin 
of the root of the verb itself, the number of tenses of which 
it is composed, the mode of their formation, or their precise 
signification when formed, and on each of these topics I shall 
have a few words to say. 

xxvi. One of the most accomplished living scholars (the 
Bishop of London), in his preface to Matthias's Grammar, 
remarks that much light was thrown upon the structure and 
origin of the Greek language by the sagacity and erudition 
of Hemsterhuys, who supposed that the primary verbs con- 
sisted of two or three letters from which all the other forms 
and inflexions were derived. So much indeed was he thought 
to have effected in this way, that his pupil Ruhnken says of 
him, " Denique tenebras linguae per tot secula offusas ita dis- 
cussit ut qua lingua nulla est neque verbis, neque formis, 
copiosior, eadem jam nulla reperiatur ad discendum facilior." 
That there is considerable truth in the etymological theory 
of Hemsterhuys, continues the Bishop, it is impossible to 
deny, but that it has been pursued to too great an extent is 
no less certain ; and one obvious and unanswerable objection 
to its universality is the undoubted fact, that much of the 
Greek language, together with its written characters, was 
borrowed from some Asiatic nation. With all deference 
to this distinguished scholar, I prefer substituting nations, 
for although perhaps the major part of the Greek alphabet 
may be traced to the Phoenician (Samaritan), some of the 



THE GREEK VERB. 155 

letters are clearly referable to the common Syriac, and some 
to the Estrangolo, or old Syriac, and again several letters of 
the Shemitic alphabets may be proved to have had their 
origin in Chinese hieroglyphics. And with respect to the 
roots of Greek words, though some may be traced to the 
Persic and Arabic, the Sanskrit is undoubtedly the imme- 
diate mother both of the Greek and Latin. 

xxvu. To that language we must have recourse, if we wish 
to have a perfectly clear idea of the origin and formation of the 
different tenses of the verb Tupto. This far-famed verb has 
been used as a Paradigm in Greek Grammars, and enforced by 
so very peculiar a discipline in our great public schools, until, 
like the laws of Draco, it may almost be said to be written in 
blood, and yet, which is singular enough, I cannot discover 
a true account of it in any Lexicon in my pessession. That 
of Scapula, which is usually regarded as the best after 
Stephens's Thesaurus, says, " Tupto verbero, percutio, pulso, 
tundo," entirely omitting two of its most important meanings, 
to wound and to kill. The Lexicon of Damm, denominated 
in the title-page Homericum et Pindaricum, omits the word 
altogether, though it occurs in one or another of its senses 
in almost every page of Homer's descriptions of battles, but 
under the word Tupo he says, " pro quo usus obtinuit tvtttg)" 
and he explains it by the Latin words Tundo, Casdo corn- 
minus, Verbero, Pulso, I strike, thrust, beat, which appear 
to be copied from Scapula, and are quite as imperfect ; but 
before concluding the article he quotes Iliad N. from line 
567. to line 575., and adds, " ex quo apparet Tvirrsa-Oai h. 1. 
ut cognatum verbum positum pro /3\7]6r)vcu ut sit in genere 
letaliter vulneratus, todlich getroffen " (mortally wounded). 
The common school Greek Lexicon of Schrevelius, in which 
I have often discovered the true etymology and meaning of 
a word after having looked for it in vain in works of much 
higher pretensions, says, " Tv7ttcq, Verbero, Percutio, Pulso, 
Tundo," copying Scapula, but adds as an illustration of its 
meaning a passage from Anacreon, Otyi? fx sTvyjrs, which he 
translates Serpens me vulneravit, adding one more important 
signification to the word ; and he might have quoted from 



156 THE GREEK VERB. 

the same author, speaking of Cupid, Kat fie tvtttsc jjlsgov 
rjirap, where the verb has clearly the same signification, to 
wound. If we turn from Tupo in Damm's Lexicon, to 
page 380. of Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary, we shall find the 
Dhato, or verbal root Tupa, with the meanings — to injure, 
to hurt, to kill, and immediately following it, its aspirated 
form Tupha, with precisely the same meanings. ]\ T ow by 
turning to the Sanskrit, we have discovered not merely the 
genuine root of Tupo, which Damm appears to regard as 
the root of Tupto, but several of its most important signifi- 
cations, which are looked for in vain in a Greek Lexicon, 
and we have also discovered as certainly in the aspirate 
Tupha, the genuine root of the Greek Perfect Tense Te- 
Tupha, and the Pluperfect Ete-tuph-ein. 

xxviil On the Present Tense, as the Root of the Greek 

Verb. 

With regard to the question whether Tupto or Tupo 
is to be considered as the genuine root of the verb, and 
whether the former is derived from the latter by inserting t, 
or the latter from the former by dropping it, the Eton 
Grammar makes no observation whatever, but by selecting 
Tupto as its Paradigm, it appears to regard that word as the 
root, in common with most of the Lexicons, and Tupo as its 
Second Future. But the admirable grammar of Thiersch 
observes expressly, that of the verbs irpaaa-w, do, tikt-o), 
bear, yrjpao-K-co, grow old, and tvttt-cDs beat, not nrpacrcr, tlkt, 
yrjpaafc, tvttt, but 7rpay, tsk, yrjpa, and tvtt, are the original 
roots. And the still more elaborate grammar of Matthias 
remarks, that the insertion of t, after a consonant, served to 
lengthen the Present Tense of the verb, e. g. tvtttco for tvttco, 
leaving his readers to infer that the r in tvtttco is altogether a 
redundant letter, and was added to the root by the poets 
solely for their own convenience. There is, however, another 
view of the subject. That the Greek root Tup is cognate 
with the Sanskrit Dhato Tup, or Tupa, kill (a trilateral 
word as written, for the final a being short is merely under- 
stood and not expressed) there cannot be the smallest doubt, 
and Tupa in Sanskrit makes Tupati in the third person 



THE GREEK VERB. 157 

Present Tense, in Greek Tuptei, and hence probably the 
redundant T found its way into the other persons of Tupto 
and into the tenses formed from it. Indeed the First Future 
Passive rv(f)d-7)(rofzai has all the appearance of having been 
formed from the Present tv7tt-cd by changing the single 
letters into their corresponding aspirates, and adding eo-o/jLcli,, 
the Future of sofiai, substituting Eta for its initial Epsilon. 
In the same way rvir-rjaofiat, the Second Future, appears to 
be formed from the genuine root tvtt-w. The oldest form of 
the Greek Present Tense was probably tvit-sw, or the un- 
changing root joined to the auxiliary verb, the obsolete sco, 
I am, which contracted to tvttco was called the Second 
Future, and its regular Imperfect stvttov the Second Aorist. 

xxix. So much for the root, or theme of the verb, and as 
to the verb itself we have a glimpse of it in a more ancient 
state, than we find it existing even in the works of Homer. 
The excellent Greek Grammar of Moor, with additions by 
Dalzel and Dunbar, remarks that there is every appearance 
that verbs terminating in /jll were much older than those 
terminating in a), and adduces as a proof of it the much more 
common use of this form of the verb by Homer than by the 
other Greek writers ; while Yalpy observes that verbs in fit, 
have only three tenses in that form, the Present, the Imper- 
fect, and the Second Aorist, which we may perhaps reduce to 
two, as the Second Aorist appears to be formed from a distinct 
root ; and if a period ever existed in the Greek language 
when jnc was the only form of the verb, and that form had 
only two tenses, the Present and the Imperfect, the absence 
of the Future must have been supplied by the auxiliary 
/xsWco, or some such equivalent, and the Indo-European 
class of languages would not appear to have been more rich 
in tenses than the Shemitic ; for though the Hebrew has 
only a Preterite and a Future, that Future has sometimes a 
present and sometimes a past signification. Almost all the 
best Greek Grammars now appear to admit that what are 
called the Second Future and the Second Aorist really form 
no part of the verbs under which they are arranged in the 
Lexicon, being derived from a perfectly distinct root. If so, 



158 THE GREEK VERB. 

the Greek verb has clearly no more than six tenses ; and as 
many grammarians believe that the First Aorist and the Per- 
fect were primarily identical, the Greek had, whatever it 
may have now, no more than five tenses, exactly correspond- 
ing with the Latin, which is precisely what might have 
been expected ; for as the Latin is said to have been derived 
principally from ^Eolic Greek, it appears to be older than 
the other dialects of the Greek language, a conclusion which 
derives additional probability from its greater simplicity, and, 
above all, from the circumstance of its possessing no dual 
number, which all the Greek dialects, except the ^Eolic, 
have. But while Moor regards verbs in /xt as older than 
those in &>, he derives sl/jll, sum, from the obsolete sg), which 
is not very consistent. The real fact is, that they are all 
equally old, and all formed precisely alike, consisting of an 
immutable root, joined to one of the forms of the Auxiliary 
Yerb To be, two of which are become obsolete, and when 
recovered, or restored, will facilitate the conjugation of the 
Greek verb in a greater degree than could have been pre- 
viously conceived. 

tvtt-scd, i. e. Tup, unvarying root, and the obsolete auxiliary 

verb Eo, I am, by contraction Tupo. 
TwrT-o/jLcu, i. e. Tup, unvarying root, T redundant letter, and 

omai, contracted from the obsolete Eomai, I am. 

xxx. Imperfect Tense. Syllabic and Temporal Augment. 

Moor says, " Fuit antiquissimis temporibus aut nullum aug- 
mentum aut s, tantum, tarn pro syllabico quam pro temporali 
augmento : sic sfCTTjraL ; ssXtu^ov ; sayov ; soiratpv.^ And 
Yalpy that s was first prefixed to all augmented tenses for 
the temporal as well as the syllabic augment, and adds, it 
has been conjectured that the syllabic augment is formed 
from the imperfect rjv. Perhaps the Ionic form sa would 
be a better origin. In the Sanskrit language the same 
syllabic augment E is prefixed in the formation of the past 
tense. The Celtic tenses are also formed by prefixes. 
(Grammar, pp. 48 — 49.) The Greek Grammar of Jones, 



THE GREEK VERB. 159 

says the syllabic and temporal augment are both founded on 
the same principle. In either case s is prefixed, and in the 
latter it is contracted with the subsequent vowel : — 

afcovo) sa/covov 1 crjKovov. 

spifa sepi&v > contracted^ ^piCpv. 

opvo-Gco ...sopvcaov J \_copvo-crov. 

The Athenians preserve the syllabic augment uncontracted : 

ayco, I break sayov. 

dSco, delight saSov. 

And in another passage the same work remarks on the 
Passive Voice, the old forms must have been rvirT-siiai, 
srv7rT~s/jbrjv, and not Tvirr-ofjucu, srv7rr-ofji7)v, s being changed 
into o, as in many other instances (p. 142.), on which I 
would observe that s is not changed into o, but dropped, the 
formative of the Present Tense of rviTT-opbai being the ob- 
solete so/jlcll, I am, and of the Imperfect s-tvttt-ojjltiv, the ob- 
solete sofjbTjv. Much light is thrown on the formation of the 
Greek Imperfect Tense, by the analogy of the Sanskrit, 
respecting which Dr. Prichard remarks in his valuable work 
on the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations (p. 143.), " The 
Imperfect is formed from the Present Tense by prefixing an 
augment, and abbreviating the personal endings. The aug- 
ment is the first short vowel a, which, corresponding with 
the short vowels of the Greeks, might be represented indif- 
ferently by a, or I. Thus are formed from — 

tud-ami a-tud-am, 

tud-asi a-tud-as, 

tud-ati a-tud-at. 

In the same way the Greek Imperfect is formed in the Active 
Voice, by prefixing the E of Eon, the imperfect of Eo, to the 
immutable root, and affixing On, and in the Passive Voice 
by prefixing the E of Eomen, the imperfect of Eomai, and 
affixing Omen thus : — 

S-TV7TT-OV, 
S-TVTTT-6/jL7]V. 



160 THE GREEK VERB. 

We find a poetical form of the Imperfect, without any aug- 
ment, produced by the addition of scr/cov, one of the dialects 
of rjv, to the immutable root tvttt, thus tvtttsctkov, not a 
letter of the root, or the auxiliary verb, being changed in 
either instance." 

xxxi. The First Future Tense. 

Moor's Greek Grammar says, " Characteristica temporis est 
litera terminationi proxima ; et nullam patitur flexionem ; 
sed manet semper in eodem tempore invariabilis. In verbis 
non liquidis characteristica Futuri Primi semper est a : sic 

tl(o rlaco. 

Xejco . . .XstJQ). 
<ypd(pco ...ypd^jro). 

At in verbis liquidis characteristica Prassentis manet in 
Futuro, sic 

fjbivco, maneo /xevco. 

aireipod, semino airspw. 

<ttsWo), mitto gtsXw. 

TEfjLvoo, scindo ts/jlco. 

" Verba liquida non inserunt a ; tantum corripiunt penulti- 
mam si longa est; et flectuntur ad instar Futuri Secundi. 
Penultimam longam corripiunt, abject^ posteriore duarum 
vocalium vel consonantium : sic, 

Pras. Fut. 1. 

o-Trsipco, semino ...cttts/xo. 

tslvco, tendo tsvw. 

<j)aivco, ostendo ...cpava). 

fJLiaiVCOy polluO (JLLCLVCO. 

ts/jlvcd, scindo ts/xo). 

kcl/jlvcd, laboro Ka/juco. 

ctsWco, mitto (TTsXa). 

i|fcUo), cano -^raXw." 

Valpy says, in the Future of Verbs, the Old Attic used 
the contracted form, aXw, /caXw, o\w, am/3t/3wyuat i the New 



THE GREEK VERB. 161 

Attic resumed cr 3 and made them aXecrco, KaXiaco^ okicrco, ava- 
/3t,{3d(T0ficu. After the adoption of this Future, which be- 
came the general form in the common dialect of Greece, the 
Attics still preserved the other form which is now distin- 
guished by the name of the Second Future (page 177). It 
appears to me, that this was rather introducing the First 
Future, than changing the Second. Verbs ending in liquids 
\, fju, v, p, fjuv, forming the Fifth Conjugation in the arrange- 
ment of the Eton Grammar, which is perhaps more generally- 
used than any other in England, form their only Future by 
contraction from the Present, instead of the addition of a 
which is always a fragment, or contraction of saco, the Future 
of eco, and the formative of the other five Conjugations. 
From the analogy of verbs ending in liquids, and forming 
their Future by contraction from the Present, it is probable 
that verbs forming their Future in <r, influenced by the con- 
venience or necessity of poetry, circumflexed their Present, 
used it in a Future sense, and hence denominated it a Second 
Future ; but strictly speaking no Greek verb has more than 
one Future ; what is called the Second being generally a new 
theme, or second Present, of which what is called the Second 
Aorist is a regular Imperfect, like tuttco, and srvirov. We 
may analyse many Greek Futures into an Oriental immu- 
table root, and scrco the Future of the obsolete sco, I am, 
letter for letter. For instance, if we take the Chaldee word 
Kal, a voice, we have the Greek Present KaX-sco, and its 
Future KaX-saco, and if w r e take the Sanskrit root Mna, re- 
member, we have the Greek Present Mvd-co and its Future 
Mvci-Ecrco, Mvrjcrto. The able author of the article on two 
works of Bopp in the 33rd volume of the Edinburgh Review 
says, the First Future Middle in Greek, like the Second in 
Sanskrit, is formed by adding the Future of the Substantive 
Verb to the root, Tvir-crofiai, Greek ; tup-syami, Sanskrit. 

We therefore come to the conclusion, that what is called 
the First Future in Greek, or, in other words, the only 
Future of all verbs in co, with the exception of the fifth con- 
jugation of liquids, is formed in the Active Voice by the 

M 



162 THE GREEK VERB. 

addition of scrco, the Future of son, and in the Passive by the 
addition of sao/xat, the Future of hfjuat, to the root. 

TV7TT- 

TV7T-SCTG) — by contraction rvir-cra) — rv^co. 

TV(j)9-r)O-0{jLCU. 

TV7r-yoro/jLac. 

xxxii. The First Aorist. 

Moor says, " Aoristum et Perfectum primo idem fuisse ex 
multis indiciis patet." If we first expunge from the number 
of the Tenses the Second Future and the Second Aorist, as 
formed from a distinct root, or theme, and next the First 
Aorist as identical with the Perfect, the Greek and Latin 
verbs become precisely alike, each containing five tenses, 
and those the same tenses with the same signification. It 
appears to me to be demonstrable, beyond the possibility of 
doubt, that the tenses of the Greek and Latin verb, like 
those of the Sanskrit, are produced by some of the various 
forms of the Auxiliary Verb To be, which exists in the 
Greek language in different states ; sco, and sojull, having 
become obsolete, but being susceptible of restoration without 
much doubt or difficulty. But this is not all, for it occurs 
to me that the different Tenses of the Verbs sl/u, sum, sI/jlc 
and IrjUL, eo, vado, fa) pi, mitto, hfiai, mittor, concupisco, rjixat, 
sedeo, and slfjuai, indutus sum, have been mixed and con- 
founded, until it is hardly possible to separate and distinguish 
them ; nor should I attempt to do so, did I not believe that 
some of the Tenses which properly belong to say, slfu, and 
so^ai, the Verb Substantive To be, have been arranged 
under some of these verbs. Of sl/xi, eo, the Port Royal 
Grammar says, ec from this verb slco is derived the unusual 
Preterite elkcl, whence is formed the Pluperfect sl/cslv, and 
the First Aorist should be slaa." Of w;/xt, mitto, it says, 
" Future tfo-eo, First Aorist rj/ca for rjcra, Perfect sl/ca, with st, 
Boeot. for rj/ca, like TkQzucaP And of sc/jlcu, indutus sum, it 
remarks, Future b'crco or saaco, First Aorist Active elcra and 
Icro-a." Reasoning from analogy, I cannot but be of opinion 
that the Aorist as well as the other tenses of the Greek verb 



THE GREEK VERB. 163 

was formed from an immutable root joined to some tense of 
the Auxiliary Verb To be, and I am therefore under the ne- 
cessity of supposing that one of the forms of that verb con- 
tained such an Aorist as saa, of which the initial letter s was 
prefixed to the root ivit as an augment, while aa formed its 
termination : s-rvir-aa or srvy^a. If, however, the First 
Aorist was formed from the First Future, the formative was 
undoubtedly sa, which we find in the Eton Grammar among 
the dialects of rjv, by prefixing the s as an augment, and sub- 
stituting the a for the final on of rv-^rco. In the Aoristus 
iEolicus of the Optative Mood, we have Tv^-sta, without any 
augment. In the formation of this tense the analogy of the 
Sanskrit is worth noticing. Dr. Prichard says, the Sanskrit 
Verb asmi (the Greek el/ml) has no Future ; but M. Bopp 
conjectures with great probability that syami, the adjunct by 
which a Future Tense is formed in attributive verbs, is in 
fact only the obsolete Future of the verb asmi (rather asyami, 
Greek sao/juai). A fact strongly favouring this hypothesis is, 
that a tense of this verb exists in Sanskrit, and is recognised 
as such, which is only used in forming the Preterperfect 
Tense of certain verbs. Asa, asit'ha, asa, is termed the third 
Preterite, or Aorist of asmi. It is joined with karayam, 
from the verb karomi, facio, creo, and forms karayamasa, 
fecit, creavit. If such an Aorist as saa ever existed in 
Greek, under one of the forms of the Verb Substantive To 
be, E-TV7r-cra was formed by prefixing s and affixing aa to the 
root ; if it did not, the formative was sa, of the existence of 
which there can be no doubt, and its s was prefixed as an 
augment, and its a exchanged for the final co of the Future 
rvyjrco, Aorist i-rvyjr-a. 

xxxiii. The Perfect Tense. 

The Greek Perfect and Preterpluperfeet appear to be 
formed from a distinct root from the Present; for as in 
Sanskrit we found Tup, we also find its aspirated form 
Tuph, with precisely the same signification. The meaning 
of the Perfect Tense does not appear to be produced, or 
indeed affected, by the reduplication, as we find that existing 

M 2 



164 THE GREEK YERB. 

in many Present Tenses. I believe the final a in rsrvcpa to 
be a contraction of sa, which we find in the Eton Grammar 
among the dialects of rjv, and Ka, the termination of the 
Perfect in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth conjugations, 
appears to me to have been derived from an obsolete rj/ca, the 
Aorist or Perfect of one of the forms of the Auxiliary- 
Verb. There can be little doubt that the root or theme 
of the verb <f>povsco, intelligo, is the word (pprjv, mens, and 
if we write its tenses thus <fipov-sco, (ppov-ijaco, irs-^>pov-7]Ka, sco 
appears to be a Present, 7]<tcq (saw) a Future, and rjKa an 
Aorist or Perfect of the Auxiliary Verb To be. (See %/-«, 
mitto, in the Port Royal Greek Grammar.) Valpy says, it 
may be questioned whether the k and %, the ir and <£ were 
not added to the Perfect, which was originally formed in 
the old Attic and Ionic by the change of a> into a, as we 
find traces in saraa, fiifiaa, and in the Aorists scrsva, "s^sa, 
r}\sva. It is indeed probable that in the simplest forms of 
the language those tenses were similar ; the principle of 
variety and precision introduced those changes and additions 
which adorned the luxuriant language of Ancient Greece. 
That of Modern Greece has returned to the original sim- 
plicity ; it has only one Past tense, as ypdcfrco, sypaijra ; ttXskco, 
£7rXsfja; yvcopt^co, iyvcopcaa; ^jrdXXco, styaXa. Valpy also 
remarks that the Attics change Xs and /us of the Perfect 
into si, as stXr/fya for XsXrjcpa, and si/xap/xai for /xs/xap/iai, 
which leads to the conclusion that the formative was the sa, 
or sia, of the Auxiliary Verb To be ; and that the Perfect 
Active and Middle of the same verb are seldom both in use. 
Both the Perfect and Pluperfect Middle of tv7tt(o differ 
from the Active only by exchanging the aspirate letters for 
the single. 

xxxiv. The Pluperfect Tense. 

There can be little doubt that the terminations of this 
tense in the Active Voice are formed by adding the Aux- 
iliary Verb slv to the root, which will be found in the Eton 
grammar as a poetical form of rjv, the Imperfect of slpX, 
hsTvcfr-siv. The formative in the Passive Voice is yfArjv, 



THE GREEK VERB. 165 

the Pluperfect of slfu 9 but only in the singular number, the 
first Person Dual, and the first Person Plural. Valpy 
remarks, that the Ionic changes siv, sis, sl, of the Pluperfect, 
into sa, sas, ss, &c, as srsrvfaa, as, &c. But for the augment 
it would perhaps be more correct to say that it inserts £ 
before the final a of the Perfect, rsrvcf>a common Greek, 
rsrvfea, Ionic. So much for the six regular and undoubted 
tenses of the Greek Verb, and I shall now proceed to say a 
few words respecting those two hypothetical ones which are 
denominated the Second Future and Second Aorist, which 
appear to me to be the mere figments of grammarians, and 
two others which are so little used as hardly to require 
a formal enumeration as distinct tenses, the Paullo-Post- 
Futurum, and Aoristus JEolicus. 

xxxv. The Second Future. 

The Greek grammar of Moor says, " Futurum Secundum 
et Aoristus Secundus optimis Grammaticis nullum in Graeca 
lingua locum habere videntur. Fut. 2. nihil aliud est quam 
contractio Attice Fut. 1. Sic ti/7tw formatur a Fut. 1. 
obsoleti verbi rv7rsco, habentis in Fut. Prim. Tvirscrca, eliso 
a, tvttso), contracte tvttw" (page 73). Yalpy also says, the 
Second Future seems to be an Old Attic form of the First, 
and has consequently the same sense. We might indeed call 
the two Futures the Common and the Attic. But in another 
part, Moor says, much more justly, " Futurum Secundum 
Activum formatur a Prcesenti" (page 152). And the Greek 
grammar of Jones says, " the Ionians insert s before the 
pronominal terminations of the Second Future, tvttsco, tvttssls, 
for TU7rw, tvttsIs, &c. These are contracted and circumflexed 
by the Dorians (and Attics) tvitw, tvttsIs, tvttov\xsv, &c." 
(page 161). I experience great difficulty in admitting those 
arbitrary insertions or rejections of letters, which gram- 
marians are so fond of supposing. I have little doubt that 
the oldest form of tvttu} was what is called the Ionic tvtteg), 
and as little that that word was compounded by adding sco 9 
the Present of the Auxiliary Verb To be, to the Sanskrit root 
tu7t, and its Future by adding saw, the Future of the same 

M 3 



166 THE GREEK VERB. 

Auxiliary Verb. Ecnw, in some instances contracted to era, 
is I believe invariably the formative of what is called the 
First Future of verbs in every instance, except in the fifth 
conjugation of liquids. The Port Royal remarks that 
verbs ending in Xco } fico, vco, pco form their first (and only) 
Future like the Present, except that they make the penul- 
tima short and circumflex the last syllable, but that in an 
early stage of the language the termination gco was general 
for these verbs as well as for the rest, and that the JEolic, the 
oldest dialect of Greece, continued to retain the use of cr, 
especially in verbs in pco. The fact appears to be that the 
o--was dropped in the Future of these liquid verbs, from a 
supposed regard to euphony, and that from analogy with 
them the poets first used the Present Tense of verbs ending 
in mutes in a future sense, being induced to do so for the 
sake of the convenience or necessity of their art, and finally 
circumflexed it, and called it a Second Future. The accom- 
plished translator * of Matthias's Greek Grammar says, " the 
Second Future which is here spoken of is an imaginary 
tense invented by the Grammarians, and ought to be ex- 
punged from the common school grammars." (Vol. i. p. 47, 
Remarks.) 

xxxvi. The Second Aorist. 

Of this tense, the Greek Grammar of Moor remarks, and 
it appears to me very justly, " Aoristus Secundus est vere Im- 
perfectum." That of Jones says, "the Second Aorist differs, 
I conceive, from the Imperfect only as they are derived from 
different roots ; " and that of Valpy, ts some Grammarians be- 
lieve that the Second Aorist, when it differs from the Imper- 
fect, is the Imperfect of an obsolete verb of a kindred form, 
as stvttov from tvttco, srayov from rdr/co, &c. The latter also 
remarks of the two Aorists, that they are so similar in 
signification, that there are few verbs in which both forms 
are used. 

xxxvii. The Paullo-Post-Futurum. 

Respecting this tense the Grammar of Moor observes, 
" quod autem dicitur Paullo-post-Futurum videtur nihil aliud 

* The late Rev. E. Y. Bloomfield, M.A. 



THE GREEK VERB. 167 

•esse quam Futurum Primum Medium, Ionice reduplicatum, ut 
TETvylro/Licu ; " and that of Jones, " the form called by gramma- 
rians Paulo-post-Futurum is not a distinct tense, but the 
First Future Middle augmented : ticto/jlcu, TsrlxjofiaL ; Tv^rofiai, 
TSTvyjro/jLcu." The Port Royal says, " of the three Futures, the 
last is only for the Passive, and is commonly called the 
Paulo-post-Future, because it signifies the thing imminent ; 
but this tense is very little used." 

xxxviii. Aoristus ^Eolicus Atticis usitatissimus. 

Moor remarks of this tense, " JEolice, Ionice, et Attice," and 
the Port Royal says, the " ^Eolic Aorist of the Optative is 
formed from the Aorist of the Indicative by dropping the 
augment, and putting si before a, as srvyfra, Tv^sia. The 
Attics frequently use this Aorist, but then it is only in the 
second and third person singular, and the third plural." I 
entertain not the smallest doubt, that the termination of 
every tense of every verb in the Greek language was pri- 
marily derived from some form of the Auxiliary Verb To 
be, which certainly exists in many forms. I have already 
observed, that many verbs in Greek are so like sl/xl, sum, 
that there can hardly be a doubt that their tenses have been 
mixed and confounded, and it is remarkable that sia, which 
appears to be the formative of the tense in question, is the 
Perfect Tense, Indicative Mood, Middle Voice of sI/ju, eo, 
and was, in all probability, at a remote period a tense of the 
verb To be. It corresponds letter for letter with the termi- 
nations of rvyjr-sia, except in the third person plural, where 
the Aorist forms Tvtysiav, and the Perfect of sI/m, to go, 
sicuti. The First Aorist is said, in the Eton Grammar, to be 
formed from the First Future, by changing &> into a, and 
prefixing the augment, and if we exchange the final w of 
Tm/ra> for sia, we have the Aoristus JEolicus rv^sia. 

xxxix. Of the Moods. 

Jones's Greek Grammar remarks, that Verbs conveying a 
meaning universally and unconditionally true, and as such 
certain, are used in the Indicative Mood ; while those which 

M 4 



168 THE GREEK VERB. 

express a conditional or uncertain sense, are placed in the 
Subjunctive. While the Indicative Mode has four termi- 
nations in co, ov, a, and ziv, it is remarkable that the Sub- 
junctive has only one in co, the Optative two in oifit and ai\xi, 
and the Imperative two in s and ov. I mention this cir- 
cumstance for the sake of suggesting an analogy with the 
Sanskrit. In that language the Indicative Mood has six 
tenses, which is also the case with the Greek, if we reject 
the Second Future and Second Aorist, as I am persuaded we 
ought to do ; but the Imperative, the Potential, the Preca- 
tive, and the Conditional Moods, have only one tense each ; 
and this was probably the case with the Greek in her early 
infancy, shortly after she had parted with her Oriental 
mother. 

XL. On the Formatives or Terminations of the Greek Verb. 

This subject could never have remained covered with so 
thick a veil of mystery, during so long a period, but for 
three principal reasons : — 

1. Because the genuine and simple root of the Greek is 
hardly ever, in any instance, to be found in Greek, what 
is called the root being almost invariably a compound word. 

2. Because Greek having hitherto been regarded as an 
original or underived language, few attempts have been made 
to illustrate it, except from Greek sources, and those by 
whom the attempts have been made, have been, for the 
most part, very badly qualified, possessing no comprehensive 
knowledge of the languages of Asia. 

3. Because what is called the Yerb Substantive, To be, in 
Greek, from which the tenses of almost every other verb are 
formed, is one of the most irregular verbs in the language, 
beino- found in three distinct forms as under : — 

"E&>, sum, Dammii Lexicon in voce. 

Et/xt, sum, Scapulae Lexicon. 

"Eo/jlcu, sum, Port Eoyal Greek Grammar, book 3. c. 15. 

Eton Greek Grammar, p. 67. 
'Eyco ("Ew), Pronomen ego, est ab sco, sum, Dammii Lexicon. 



THE GREEK VERB. 169 

This remark, if traced- to its origin, and followed out to all 
its consequences, is sufficiently important to produce a com- 
plete revolution in grammar. The difficulty is to begin with 
the beginning. I believe it to be as under : — 

An, Time, an hour, Arabic (Richardson). 

Ana, I, the Personal Pronoun. 

Ana, Times, part of Time. 

Ana and Anah, Chaldee, I ; also I am (Gibbs's Gesenius in 

voce). 
Ano, Syriac, I; Ano Ano, contracted, Enono, ego sum. 
Chanan, nos, Chanan, sumus (SchafFs Syriac Lexicon). 
An, or Ana, Sanskrit, breathe, live; a Dhato, or verbal 

root written in two ways. (Wilkins's Radicals of the 

Sanscrit Language, pp. 3 and 4.) 
Av-co, Greek, Sum, in Compound Verbs, but not found 

existing in a simple state. 

All the Persons of the Verb Substantive, then, in some of 
the Shemitic languages, at least in the Present Tense, are 
both a pronoun and a verb, and signify either the person 
that exists, or existence itself. This fact has long been 
familiar to me ; but the word Ego, in Damm's Lexicon, has 
made me aware, for the first time, that it was also the case in 
Greek ; and as the Sanskrit An, or Ana, breathe, live, and the 
Greek "Avco, sum (in composition), appear to be cognate, not 
to say identical, with nearly the same word in Arabic, Chal- 
dee, and Syriac, the line of separation appears to be broken 
down between the two great families of written languages, 
the Shemitic and Sanskrit, in a particular which throws 
much light on the formation and modus significandi of the 
Greek and indeed all other verbs. If I open a Greek Lexi- 
con at the word Kaio (Ka/w), I learn that its signification is 
uro, accendo, cremo. But Kaio does not signify simply to 
burn, nor does uro in Latin ; but in both instances, I burn ; 
so that the words, although in the simplest form in which 
they exist in the two languages, do not appear to be simple, 
but compound, consisting of a pronoun combined with some 
unknown root. What is that root ? Europe was both 



170 ;the greek verb. 

peopled and civilised by Asia, and in Asia, if any where, we 
shall probably find it. If I turn to the Sanskrit, one of the 
very oldest languages of Asia, I find that the word ka is a 
noun substantive signifying both the sun and fire, and am 
consequently led to suspect that the Greek verb kaio, I 
burn, is compounded of the Sanskrit root ka, fire, and ego, I, 
the Personal Pronoun ; but as I discover that the Pronoun I, 
in the dialect of Boeotia, one of the oldest of Greece, was ex- 
pressed, not by Ego, but Io, by joining the latter word to 
the Sanskrit root ka, my analysis of kaio becomes complete, 
and I now know, not only that it signifies I burn, but why 
and how it signifies I burn. Kaio is explained in Latin by 
the words uro and cremo, and the Latin language is said to 
have been chiefly formed from -ZEolic Greek. Are the 
Latin words simple or compound, and if the latter, whence 
derived ? I find in Hebrew the word aor, or aur, signifying 
fire, and suppose the Latin uro to be formed by the elision of 
the initial a of aur, and the addition of Ego, or Io (Boeotian), 
contracted to o ; I also find in Coptic the word chrom, or 
krom, fire, and suppose cremo to be formed in the same way. 
To try another instance from the Sanskrit. In Greek we 
find the word oikos, a house, which I have little doubt was 
derived from the Sanskrit okas, but in Greek we also find 
the verb oiko (olfcco), I dwell ; and how was that formed ? I 
believe by the addition of the pronoun Ego, or rather Io, to 
the simpler form of the Sanskrit oka, a house. But though 
the Sanskrit and Greek mutually illustrate each other, and 
we commonly find the roots of the latter in the former, this 
is not invariably the case ; and we sometimes find the simple 
root of the verb in Greek in the shape of a noun substantive. 
For instance daio in Greek signifies I burn, which I should 
confidently say was derived from the Sanskrit dah, reduce 
to ashes, did I not find in Greek the word dai a torch, which 
with the addition of final omega forms the verb. But have 
we made all the use that we can do of the established fact 
that the first Person of the Greek verb consists of a simple 
invariable root, joined to a personal pronoun, and secondly 
that that personal pronoun is also the Verb Substantive To 



THE GREEK VERB. 171 

be ? Can we discover any thing from the analogy of the 
Sanskrit, a language cognate with the Greek and Latin, and 
probably the mother of both? The 13th volume of the 
Edinburgh Review, in its notice of Wilkins's Sanskrit gram- 
mar, gives the conjugations of the Verb Substantive asmi, 
sum, and the verb jivami, vivo ; and if we look at both at- 
tentively we shall discover that the latter is compounded of 
the Sanskrit noun jiv, or jiva, life, which never varies, joined 
to the persons of the verb astun, to be, unchanged except by 
dropping the letter S, and writing ami instead of asmi. 
The verb sebami is conjugated in the 33d volume of the 
Edinburgh Review, in the notice of two works of Bopp, 
to which the same remark applies, and we may also observe 
an extraordinarily close resemblance between the Sanskrit 
Active, and the Greek Middle Voice. But that Middle 
Voice appears to be clearly the Sanskrit root seb, joined to 
the persons or terminations of the Verb Substantive To be. 
But in Greek sebo and sebomai have precisely the same sig- 
nification, colo, adoro ; how are we to account for this ? 
The root of both words is clearly the Sanskrit seb, worship, 
and we may write them in Greek thus : 
Xs/3' Eg), the obsolete form of eimi, sum, by contraction <7S/3w, 

literally, worship I am, or worship I. 
^sjB-oijlcu, contracted from eomai, another of the obsolete 

forms of eimi, literally worship I am, or worship I. 

But as the obsolete forms of eimi perform so important a 
part in the conjugation of the Greek verb, it will be neces- 
sary, before we proceed farther, to endeavour to ascertain 
what they were. 

XLI. On the Auxiliary Verb — To be. 

The persons of the Present Tense of this verb are so much 
alike in all the principal languages of the Sanskrit branch of 
the great Indo-European family, as irresistibly to suggest 
the idea of a common origin among all the people that use it. 
Our examples comprise the Sanskrit, which appears to be 
the basis of most of the languages still used in the vast conti- 
nent of India, of three forms of the Persic, of the Slavonic 



172 



THE GREEK VERB. 



and Lithuanian, which compose the speech of the principal 
nations of the North of Europe, of the Greek and Latin, 
which, w T ith some modifications, still continue to be spoken 
in the South, and of the Moeso-Gothic, which: is the oldest 
written form of the Anglo-Saxon, German, and English. 



Singular. 



Plural. 



1. 


2. 


3. 




1. 


2. 


3. 


Sanskrit. Asmi 


asi 


asti, 


smah, or sums 


stha 


santi. 


PersicS JH^ stam 

lorms. c , 

(_ Shum 


ai 

hasti 

shui 


ast, 

hast, 

shud, 


aim 

hastim 

shuim 




aid 

hastid 

shuid 


and. 

hastand. 

shund. 


T . f Esum. 
Latin ' (Sum 


es 


est, 


sumus 




estis 


sunt. 


Greek, 2 "I ^icr/xl 
Forms. J el/A 


k(To\ 

els 


earl, 


i(T/xes 
ecr/xeu 




ecTTe 
eo-Te 


elcrl. 


Slavonic. Jesmi 


jese 


jesti, 


jesmi 


(y) 


jeste 


suti. 


Lithuanian. Esmi 


essi 


esti, 


esme 




este 


esti. 


M. Gothic. Im 


is 


ist, 


siyum 




siyuth 


sind. 



Here we may remark that the Sanskrit verb asmi, and 
more especially if we restore what Dr. Prichard regards 
as its oldest plural forms, asmus, astha, asanti, corresponds 
almost letter for letter with the oldest form of the Greek 
icr/ju, and that the same verb, as it appears as an auxiliary, and 
is joined in the process of conjugating to other roots, drops 
its s for the most part, and approximates to the common 
Greek form of slfju ; as jiv-ami, I live, seb-ami, I venerate. 
We recognise the Latin sum in the Persic shum, the 
Latin sumus, in the Persic shuim, and the Latin sunt in the 
Persic shund, and may remark that both the old Slavonic 
and Lithuanian, or Lettish, strikingly resemble the Sanskrit 
and oldest Greek ; while the persons in the singular number 
of the Moeso-Gothic approximate very closely to the first 
Persic form am, ai, ast. The verb substantive appears to 
have experienced many changes in most languages, and 
chiefly in the shape of contractions, as that which is most 
used is naturally most worn ; but in addition to this common 
source of change, the Auxiliary Yerb, To be, in Greek, seems 
to have undergone other corruptions, from the circumstance 
of there existing three or four other verbs in the language so 

* Prichard on the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, p. 97. 



THE GKEEK VERB. 173 

closely resembling it, that their tenses have unquestionably 
been confounded, and we are under the necessity of casting 
a glance on them before we proceed with our arduous 
attempt to restore the obsolete parts of sI/jlL These verbs 
are sI/jll and lr\\xi eo, vado, itj/ju mitto, is/mai cupio, rj/iat sedeo, 
sl/uai indutus sum ; and as the Port Royal appears to have 
paid more attention to these verbs than any other grammar, I 
shall depend chiefly on its authority. 

'EIMI, Sum, I am. 

From tw, with a smooth breathing comes d/xi acuted. 

1. Aorist, ?>?', Poetical. 

„ „ sov, Ionic (Eustathius), also an Imperfect. 

Pres. Middle, tfiai. Imp. Middle, ^firjv. 

T EIMI and "IHMI, eo, Vado. 
From to) is formed eiw, and thence el/11, vado. 
Imperfect, siv. 1. Aorist, tlaa. 

Perfect, eTica. (unusual). 2. Aorist, lov.- 

Pluperfect, e'Ueiv. Perfect Mid. e la. 

"IHMI, Mitto, to send. 
From sio, with a rough breathing, comes fy/n. 

Future, ??o-w. Perfect, elica for fjica. 

1. Aorist, jj/ea for yjact. 2. Aorist Mid. sfjirjv. 

2. Aorist, v\v. Pres. Opt. Mid. ei^rjv. 

"IEMAI, T HMAT, and r EIMAI. 

From i'u comes 'Ufiai, which, with a rough breathing, expresses desire. 
From ew to sit, comes likewise ^fiai. 

Imperfect, r\\x,r]v. 1. Aorist Act. eicra and tWa. 

Eljuaf, indutus sum. 1. Aorist Mid. dvajxriv and ieaa^v. 

Future, scra>, or «Ww. 

Such are the verbs so closely resembling st/xt, to be, in 
their form, that I entertain not a doubt that many tenses are 
arranged under them, in all existing grammars and lexicons, 
which in an early period of the Greek language, perhaps 
anterior to the general use of alphabetical writing, certainly 
formed part of the Auxiliary Verb. It may be necessary, 
however, to premise a few words on the polemical part of my 
subject, before T enter on that which is purely didactic. 



174 THE GREEK VERB. 

The article, in the 33rd volume of the Edinburgh Review, 
noticing two works of Bopp, to which I have had occasion 
to allude more than once, says, the First Preterite (Im- 
perfect) is formed in Sanskrit by prefixing A to the root, 
as the Imperfect in Greek is by the augment. Thus the 
first person in Sanskrit is Asebam, in Greek sosfiov (p. 433). 
But the First Preterite in Sanskrit is not formed merely by 
prefixing A to the root, but also by changing Ami, the 
termination of the Present, into Am, nor is the Imperfect 
in Greek formed by merely prefixing the augment s, but 
also by changing the co of the Present into ov, as Sebami, 
Asebam, Sanskrit; o-sfico, sosfiov, Greek. The root is the 
same in both instances, and the additions to that root are in 
Sanskrit Aam, and in Greek Eov. But in Greek sov is a 
distinct tense of the verb To be, and we find it arranged in 
the Eton Grammar among the dialects of rjv, eram. In both 
languages, therefore, the Imperfect is formed by prefixing 
A or E to the root, and adding Am, or On, as a termi- 
nation. But sov, the Imperfect of sl/jul, sum, forms sov, sss, hf, 
according to the Eton Grammar ; the real model of the 
terminations of this tense, therefore, appears to be iov, the 
Second Aorist of sl^i, vado, which, in the form of sov, was 
formerly one of the tenses of the Auxiliary Verb To be ; and if 
we prefix its s to the root tvttt, and add its termination ov, 
we shall have s-tvttt-ov, the Imperfect of tvttt, letter for letter 
throughout all the Persons. If we now turn to s-tvttt-6/jlt]v, 
the Imperfect of the Passive Voice, as the addition to the root 
is so/jL7]v, the s being prefixed as an augment, and the o/lltjv an- 
nexed as a termination, we can hardly doubt that that word 
is e6/jlt]v, the Imperfect of the obsolete so/iac, which itself in 
the slightly contracted form of ojnai forms the Present Tense, 
Passive Voice TvirT-ofjuai. The First Future of all Greek verbs 
in co, except liquids in \, jjl, v, p, of the fifth conjugation, ter- 
minates in (76), saco, or rjaco if we resolve the penultimate 
double letters yjr and £ into their elements its and ks ; and here 
it appears to me that there cannot be a doubt that the forma- 
tive is saco, the Future of the obsolete say, sum, added to the 
root, and generally contracted to aco, as from tvtt, tvtt-gco, 



THE GREEK VERB. 175 

commonly written Tvyfrco, and ?)<tg), which we sometimes find 
as the formative, appears to be the future of t^fit, mitto. Alvsco, 
laudo, forms both alp-saw and alv-rjcrco, in the future ; /3odco, 
clamo, fio-ri<j(0. Ho-ofAai, the formative of both Futures in the 
Passive Voice, is clearly saofiat, the Future of the obsolete 
so^iai, with the change of only its initial letter, and that 
change took place because sa-co, the regular formative of the 
Future, in the active voice is sometimes written r^aco. E^, the 
termination of the Pluperfect in the Active Voice, is doubtless 
a tense of the verb To be, and accordingly we find it arranged 
in the Eton Grammar among the dialects of rjv, eram ; but as 
it is circumflexed its uncontracted form probably was ssiv, and 
the Pluperfect i-Tsrucfi-siv was formed from the Perfect rsrvcjya 
by prefixing the s of sstv as an augment, and substituting stv 
for the final a. In the instance of tv^-zicl, the Aoristus .ZEolicus 
of the Optative Mood, Active Voice, the formative certainly 
appears to have been sla 9 the Perfect Middle Voice of sIjjll, to 
go, as the tenses agree almost letter for letter, and if this be 
admitted, though sla is now arranged under sl/uu, to go, it 
must as certainly have been a tense of the Auxiliary Verb slfil 
to be, at a remote period. The formative of the Pluperfect 
Passive Voice irsTVfifjLrjv {s-tstvtt-iitjv) appears to have been 
r\\vr\ v the Pluperfect of elfii ; but as we find efirjv, second Aorist, 
middle voice, of vq/M, mitto, it is highly probable that that 
tense, in the infancy of the Greek language, formed part of the 
Auxiliary Verb To be, and that its s was prefixed as an augment 
while its fjurjv formed the affix or termination, agreeably to 
what appears to have been the general, not to say invariable 
rule The First Aorist is said to be formed from the first 
Future, by prefixing the augment, and changing its final 
o) into a, as from tvtt-ctg), or rvyfrco, s-rvir-aa or srv^ra ; 
but if my view of the subject is at all founded on fact, 
one tense was never formed from another, which is merely, 
a contrivance of grammarians, but all the tenses were 
formed from the simple root, which we rarely find in Greek 
at all, and they were all formed in precisely the same way, 
namely, by the addition of the various tenses of the Auxiliary 
Verb To be, to that root. In the instance of twt&>, it is agreed 



176 THE GREEK VERB. 

on all hands that the genuine root is twit, and that the r is 
redundant. This is admitted in Damm's Lexicon and 
Thiersch's Grammar, and we find the root twit in Sanskrit, to 
put the matter beyond all dispute. The first Aorist of tvittco, 
or rather two), is s-rvir-aa, the addition to the root being 
sera ; and as we find slcra as the First Aorist of sI/m, to go, and 
rjaa as the First Aorist of ltj/m, to send, it seems extremely 
probable to me that one of these tenses formerly stood under 
the Auxiliary Verb To be, under the slightly altered form of 
sera ; and that the Aorist, like the Imperfect and Pluperfect, 
was formed from the simple root tvtt, by prefixing the s as an 
augment, and adding the era as a termination. With respect 
to the Perfect Tense, which, in the Eton Grammar, is said to 
be formed from the First Future by changing its final yjreo into 
(j>a, and the reduplication of the first consonant of the root or 
theme with s, we find the prototype of the Greek rs-rvej^a in 
the Sanskrit tuph, the aspirated form of tup, with precisely the 
same signification ; so that there appears to be an affix to the 
root, as well as a prefix, or reduplication ; and I believe the 
final a in rsrvepa to be a contraction of sa, which we find in 
the Eton Grammar among the dialects of rjv, eram ; but as that 
makes ta, srjs, hjv, the model of the terminations of the Perfect 
Tense appears to be sla, Attic fja, the Perfect Tense, Middle 
Voice, of sI/m, vado, which makes a, -as, -s. This is the Perfect 
of the first conjugation only of verbs in eo, and the %a, or tea, 
of the Perfect of the other fiwe conjugations appears to be a 
contraction of rj/ca, the First Aorist of Xrjfjbi, mitto ; and as that 
Aorist, according to the Port Royal, was also rjcra, we have in 
the same tense the common terminations of the First Aorist and 
Perfect ; and in an early stage of the Greek language these two 
tenses are said to have been identical, and must have assimi- 
lated the Greek verb with the Latin, which is precisely what 
might have been expected ; for as the latter language is sup- 
posed to have been derived chiefly from ^Eolic Greek, the 
farther back we carry the Greek, the more closely it will be 
found to approximate to the Latin, in having only five tenses 
and no Dual number. It now only remains to exhibit the ob- 
solete tenses of the Auxiliary verb To be, which will be found 



Eo> 


tig 


EC. 




ETOV 


ETOV. 




iirov 


urcv (Attic). 


Of.it v 


ete 


oven. 


OuftlV 


UTi 


Oun (Attic). 



THE GREEK VERB. 177 

to account for the different formations of almost every verb in 
the Greek language. 

xlii. The obsolete "E&>, Sum (Dammii Lexicon), 

Indicative Mood, Present Tense. 

Singular, 
Dual, 

Plural, 

Derivatives — The Present Tense of all verbs in the Indicative Mood 
of the Active Voice terminating in w, as tv-kt-eu, tvttt-w, and of the 
Second Future. 

Imperfect Tense (Eton Grammar, Dialects of r\v). 
Singular, Eov eeg ee. 

Dual, (ETOV EET7JV. 

Plural, Eojxev eete eov. 

Derivatives — All the Imperfects of verbs in the Active Voice which 
form their Present in w, by prefixing the £ to the root as an augment, 
and adding the ov as a termination, as e-tvwt-ov. 



Singular, 

Dual, 
Plural, 

Derivatives — All the Futures of verbs in the Active Voice which 
form their Present in w, except liquids of the Fifth Conjugation, as tvtc- 
«(tw, ru7T-<7w, rinpw, $r-t<Th) and S-rjtru). 

Aorist (tlcra, 1. Aorist of el/a, eo I go). 
Singular, Eva Ecag e<te. 

Ufa 
Dual, eaarov EGarrjv. 

Plural, Baafjuv egclte eociv. 

Derivatives — The Aorists of verbs which form their Present in w, by 
prefixing the e to the root as an augment, and adding the va as a termi- 
nation, aS E-TWK-GCI, ETVIpCt. 

Perfect Tense (Eton Grammar, Dialects of riv). 
Singular, Ea tag ee. 

Dual, ECtTOV EO.TOV. 

Plural, Ba/jiEv Ears eckti. 

Derivatives — The Perfect of verbs of the First Conjugation which 
form their present in w, by prefixing the reduplication to the aspirated 

N 



uture Tense 


(D 


ammii 


Lexicon). 


Ecto 




ECFEig 




E(TEl 


H<™ 




EGETOV 




EOETOV. 


Egouev 




EGETt 




EOOVGl. 



178 THE GREEK VERB. 

form of the root (Tup, Tuph, Sanskrit), and adding the fa, contracted to 
a, as a termination, as rt-Tvcp-a. As a model see da, the Perfect Middle 
of tl/M, to go (Valpy, p. 88.). 

Pluperfect Tense (Eton Grammar, Dialects of r\v'). 
Singular, Euv etig eei. 

Dual, seirov eeirrjv. 

Plural, EeifjLSv eeire tuaav. 

Derivatives — The Pluperfect of verbs in w, by prefixing the e to the 
Perfect as an augment, and substituting uv for its final «, as a termi- 
nation, as e-Tt-rvQ-eiv. These two tenses of g'w, also account for the Per- 
fect and Pluperfect of the Middle Yoice, rtTvira and fTtTvicuv. 

Subjunctive Mood, Present Tense (Eton Grammar). 

Singular, T Q tjq r\. 

Dual, rjTOv rjrov. 

Plural, Q/xtv t]Tt am. 

Derivatives — The terminations of all the Tenses of the Subjunctive 
Mood, Active Voice, of verbs which form their Present in w. Also of all 
the Tenses of the Passive, except the Present and the Imperfect, and of 
the Perfect and Pluperfect, Middle Voice. It also, with some modifi- 
cations, forms the Subjunctives of verbs in yn. 

Imperative Mood. 

Singular, E stoj. 

Dual, Etov etojv. 

Plural, Ere sroxrav. 

Derivatives — The termination of the Present, Imperfect, 2. Aorist, 
Perfect and Pluperfect Tenses in the Active, and of the Perfect and 
Pluperfect in the Middle Voice. 

xliii. The obsolete "Eo/mt, Sum (Eton Grammar, p. 67.). 

Indicative Mood, Present Tense. 
Singular, "Eojucu er) eerai. 

Dual, Eo/jleQov eecrOov ssaOov. 

Plural, EofitOa stcrQe eovtcli. 

Derivatives — The Present of the Passive and Middle Voices of verbs 
in w, and of the 2d Future Middle, by changing o into ov, and e into e<, as 

TVTTT-Ofiai, TVTC-OV\iai. 

Imperfect Tense. 

Singular, Eo\ir\v eov eero. 

Dual, EofxeOov eeaOov eeaOijv. 

Plural, Eo/JieOa eeaOe sovto. 

Derivatives — The Imperfect of the Passive and Middle Voices of 
verbs in w, by prefixing the e to the root as an augment, and adding the 
o/xt]v as a termination, as e rv7rr-o/j,r}v. 



say 


tasrai. 


taeaOov 


t(TE(j9oV. 


eataOe 


EOOVTCLl. 



THE GREEK VERB. 179 



Future Tense (Eton Grammar). 

Singular, EdOjuat 

Dual, TLcrofxtQov 

Plural, EaofjitOa 

Derivatives — The 1st and 2d Futures of the Passive, and 1st Future 
of the Middle Voice of verbs in w. The long vowel in rjaofxat appears to 
have arisen out of >j(rw, in some verbs the formative of the Active Future. 
1st Future, root rvirr, and by changing the single letters for the aspirate, 
rv<p6-r]<T0[juii. 2d Future, root TVK-n)<jo\iai. Paulo-post-Futurum, root tvtt, 
with the reduplication, and evofiai contracted to <ro[iai, TE-rvTr-vofiai, re- 
rv\pOfxau 

Optative Mood, Present Tense.' 



Singular, Eotp eoiq 

Dual, 



f.(H ..-. 



EoLfJLTjV 


eoio 


eoiTo. 


'EoifxeOov 


e&igQov 


soiaOrjv. 


EoifitQa 


eomjOe 


eoivto. 



S01T0V EOlTK\V, 

Plural, Eoifxtv sotre eoiev. 

Derivatives — All the Tenses of the Optative Mood, Active Voice, 
with the exception of the 1st Aorist, which makes aifit, atg, m. Also of 
the Perfect and Pluperfect, Middle Voice. 

Imperfect Tense. 

Singular, 

Dual, 

Plural, 

Derivatives — The Present and Imperfect Tenses of the Passive and 
Middle Voices, and the 2nd Future and 2nd Aorist Middle. 

Future Tense (Eton Grammar). 

Singular, Ecroi/i?^ eaoio ecrotro. 

Dual, EcroijJieOov taoiadov E(roia9r]v, 

Plural, Eaoi/xtOa egohtQe ecroivro. 

Derivatives — The 1st and 2nd Futures of the Optative Mood, 
Passive Voice, but apparently formed from an Active Future in yaw 
rather than taw, and from ijctoj, y\aoi\ir\v. Also the Paulo-post-Futurum 
in the same Mood, and the 1st Future and 1st Aorist Middle Voice, 
except that the latter makes aai\iy\v instead of aoi\ir\v^ following the ana- 
logy of the 1st Aorist Optative, Active Voice. 

Subjunctive Mood, Present Tense. 

Singular, Ewjucu ey syrau 

Dual, ~Eu)jxe6ov etjoBov srjaOov* 

Plural, EojfieOa et}g9e euvTctu 

Derivatives — The Present and Imperfect Tenses of the Subjunctive 
Mood, Passive and Middle Voices, and of the 1st and 2nd Aorist Middle. 

n 2 



180 THE GREEK VERB. 

xliv. EI/jlI, Sum. 

Indicative Mood, Present Tense (Eton Grammar). 
Singular, Ei/xi tig vel si tan. 

Dual, tarov terror. 

STOV tTOV. 

Plural, Eajxtv tart a 07. 

E,asv ttt ita-i. 

Derivatives — The First Person of Verbs in p, and of the Dual and 
Plural by rejecting a. The Greek follows the analogy of the Sanskrit 
very close. In the latter language the Verb Astun, to be, forms in the 
Present Tense, Singular Number, Asmi — Asi — Asti ; but when em- 
ployed as an Auxiliary, and united with a Verbal Root, we have Jiv-ami, 
I live — Jiv-asi, thou livest — Jiv-ati, he lives— Jiv-amah, we live. But 
the real model of Verbs in /.u is Ifytn, to send ; many of the Tenses of 
which may be regarded as dialectical varieties of Etp, to be. 

Imperfect Tense (Eton Grammar). 
Singular, Hv ?]g r\. 

Eyv 

Dual, • r\Tov T)rr]v. 

Plural, Hfxsv rjrt rjaav. 

Derivatives — The two Aorists of Verbs in «, in the Indicative Mood, 
Passive Voice, and with some modifications the Imperfect and 2nd 
Aorist of Verbs in fit ; but the oldest form was probably Eqv, 

Pluperfect Tense (Eton Grammar). 
Singular, Bfir/v rjao ijro. 

Dual, BfjitOov r}a9ov i\adr\v. 

Plural, E/isOa rjaOt rjvro. 

If we resolve Eta into its two component Epsilons, we shall have both 
the augment and termination of the Imperfect Tense, Indicative Mood, 
Passive Yoice, of Verbs in fit, as e-TiO-efirjv. 

Optative Mood, Present Tense (Eton Grammar), 
Singular, Eirjv tLrjg tirj. 

Dual, eir]Tov tujrrjv. 

Plural, Eit]f.itv ttrjTt tirjaav. 

Derivatives — The Perfect, Pluperfect, and two Aorists of the Optative 
Mood, Passive Voice, of Verbs in- w. Also of the Present and 2nd 
A of ist of the Optative of Verbs in p. 

2nd Aorist (of '%i, to send, Valpy, p. 93). 
Singular, Eifii]v tio siro. 

Dual, EljaeOov tiaOov tiaOrjv. 

Plural, EifieOct tiaOt eivto. 

Derivatives — The Present Tense, Optative Mood, Passive Voice, 
of Verbs in p, as TiQ-ei/urtv. Also of 2nd Aorist, Optative Middle, as 

Sr-eifirjv. 



THE GREEK VERB. 181 

Middle Voice, Indicative Mood, Present Tense (Port Royal, p. 222.). 

Singular, E/xai eaai erat. 

Dual, E/xeOov eaOov tcrOov. 

Plural,' EfjiaOa £<r9e tvrai. 

Derivatives — The Present Tense, Indicative Mood, Passive Voice, of 
Verbs in fxi, and the Perfect, Passive Voice, of Verbs in oj, in the Singular 
Number, 1st Dual, and 1st Plural. 

2nd Aorist (of %u, to send, Port Royal, p. 230.). 

Singular, Efxtjv euo ero. 

Dual, E/xsQov eaOov zsQr\v. 

Plural, EfieOa eode evro. 

Derivatives — The Imperfect Tense, Indicative Mood, Passive Voice, 
of Verbs in ju, and the Pluperfect, Passive Voice, of Verbs in w, by pre- 
fixing the f, as an augment, and adding the \m]v to the root as a termi- 
nation, as (.-Tzrv-K-ixriv, and substituting \jl for tt, e-reTvix-jXjjv, i-tetvit-go, 

£-r£TV7T-TO. 

XLV. Such appear to me to be the obsolete tenses of the 
Auxiliary Verb, To be, which, joined to an unvarying root, 
form the tenses of all the regular verbs in the Greek lan- 
guage. The Imperative, like the other moods, clearly derives 
its terminations from the tenses of the Substantive Verb. 
These terminations are but two in the Active Voice, ov and 
arco for the First Aorist, and s and srco for all the other 
tenses. We find si, by Crasis as the Imperative of sl/m, Sum, 
and tjtcd, as a Doric form of the third person singular ; but 
the model in composition appears to be si, ltco, the Present 
of the Imperative of sl/M, to go, by changing I into E, many 
of the tenses of the verbs which so closely resemble those 
of slfu, to be, having been confounded with them, as I have 
already had occasion to remark; s and srco however, the 
terminations of the Imperative in the Active Voice, really 
appear to be derived directly from the obsolete soy, to be, 
and the tenses of the Present and Imperfect of the Passive 
Voice to be derived from the Imperative of slfu almost 
unchanged. The terminations of the Active Participle 
tvttt-wv, TVTTT-ovcra, TV7TT-OV, are obviously the Participle of 
the Auxiliary Verb cov, ovaa, ov, &c. joined to the unchanging 
root ; so that, beginning with soy, the formative of the Present 
tense tvttt-ch by contraction, we have now carried the 



182 THE GREEK. VERB. 

Auxiliary Verb, To be., through all the moods and tenses 
which are formed by its instrumentality. 

XLVI. Of the Obsolete Verb sctkco, Sum. 

Thiersch says, " after the reduplication and the augment 
which proceeded from it, we have to consider another kind of 
increase, at the conclusion of the root, by means of the letters 
ax, the signification of which, originally one of repetition, 
strength, duration, is still visible in many instances, though 
in many it is lost." (p. 432.) The root of the verb in this 
sense appears to be the Greek word is, robur, vis, with ^a>, 
contracted from syco, and substituting % for 7, a letter of the 
same organ in the first instance, and in composition k ; thus, 
ictkco : from htkcd or lg%o>, the Verbal Substantive icryys, 
robur, and from the latter icryyw, possum. But this is only 
one of the meanings of the verb ictkco or tcr^co, and in another 
it appears to be clearly an obsolete form of the Verb Sub- 
stantive, To be. In Sanskrit, the Dhato or verbal root of 
the verb, To be (in the Infinitive mood Astun, and in the 
first Person of the Present Tense Asmi, the prototype of the 
Greek slfu) is As ; to which, if we add %g), contracted from 
syco, we shall have acryw, and by changing a into s, and the 
% into k, scrK(t> or lctkcd, which forms the termination of such 
verbs as yrjp-aaKco, senesco, ap-scr/cco, placeo, svp-LGKc*), in- 
venio, ytv-cocrfccD, cognosce Or we may deduce sctkco, sum, 
from sctkov, eram, a poetical Imperfect of slfu, which is 
given in the Eton Grammar among the dialects of rjv, by 
simply changing ov into co ; and it appears to have had a First 
Aorist, or Perfect, or both, sctkci, whence the formative of the 
First Aorist, sera, by dropping Kappa, and of the Perfect, 
skcl, by dropping Sigma. Both rjcra and rjfca are said to be 
the First Aorist of Iltj/ulc, mitto, and t)kcl also its Perfect ; 
but one of the forms of the Verb Substantive certainly 
possessed such a tense at a remote period, which contracted 
to kcl was the formative of the Perfect. If we take the verb 
aevsco, laudo, we have in the Present Tense acv-sco, in the 
Future aiv- scrco and cuv-Tjaco, and in the Perfect tjv-skcl ; and 
as the terminations of the two first tenses are clearly borroAved 



THE GREEK VERB. 



183 



from the Auxiliary Verb, To be ; analogy is in favour of the 
latter being so also. Again, if we take the verb cppovsco, 
intelligo, sapio, there can be little doubt that the root is the 
JSToun Substantive cppyv, mens, sapientia ; and we have in the 
Present Tense (ppov-sco, in the Future (ppov-scra), and in the 
Perfect 7rE-(j)pov-r]Ka, a circumstance which leaves no doubt 
in my mind that the Perfect, like the Present, the Imperfect, 
and the Future, was formed by the instrumentality of the 
Auxiliary Verb, To be. 

xlvii. Jones, in his Latin Grammar, gives the following 
list of verbs in sco, which he very properly calls Inceptive 
Verbs, as, though etymologically they do not differ from the 
corresponding verbs terminating in eo, both being com- 
pounded from an unvarying root, and the Present Tense of 
two different obsolete forms of the Auxiliary Verb, To be, 
both in Greek and Latin Eo and Esco, many of those with the 
latter termination differ from the former, by signifying em- 
phatically the beginning of action. 



Ardesco 


ere 


arsi 




I burn . . . 


. from ardeo. 


Calesco 


ere 


calui 


. 


I grow hot . . 


n 


caleo. 


Erubesco 


ere 


erubui 


o 


I blush . . . • 


11 


erubeo. 


Horresco 


ere 


horrui 


o 


I shudder . . 


ii 


horreo. 


Hebesco 


ere 


hebui 


. 


I grow weak . 


ii 


hebeo. 


Hisco 


ere 






I gape . . . 
I cleave, gape. 




hio,-are. 


Fatisco 


ere 










Scisco 


ere 


scivi 


scitus 


I decree. 






Suesco 


ere 


suevi 


suetus 


I am accustomed. 






Senesco 


ere 


senui 


senectus 


I grow old. 






Nosco 


ere 


novi 


notus 


I know. 






Posco 


ere 


poposci 


poscitus 


I require. 






Disco 


ere 


didici 










Pasco 


ere 


pavi 


pastus 


I feed. 







If we refer to the verb Senesco, in the admirable Dic- 
tionary of Facciolati, we find it explained, to grow, become 
aged, yr)pao--/cco 9 senex fio ; whence it is obvious that the 
Greek and Latin words are formed in the same way, the 
former from yrjpas, old age, and the Auxiliary Verb s<tkcdj I 
am, and the latter from Senex, an old man, and Esco, I am. 
Again, one of the verbs in the preceding list is unquestionably 
derived from an Indian source. In Sanskrit we find the 



N 4 



184 



THE GREEK VERB. 



Dhato, Pa, with the general signification of cherish, nourish, 
which, compounded with different forms of the Auxiliary 
verb, To be, becomes in Greek ira-say, 7raco ; ira-sofAcu, iraopai} 
and in Latin, pa-esco, pasco. 

XL VIII. Of the Obsolete Verb) avco, Sum. 

We find in Sanskrit the Dhato, or verbal root An, or Ana, 
signifying in a general way, breathe, live, which, united in 
Greek to the obsolete sco, contracted to co, becomes avco, I am, 
having no existence as a distinct word, but forming the 
termination of many compound verbs, as Lamb-ano, capio* 
Both parts of this word may be said to be Sanskrit, as in that 
language we find the root lambhi. The Greek grammarians 
are obliged to derive many of the tenses of \afjbj3avco from a 
supposed obsolete root Xrjfto); but here, also, the genuine 
root appears to be the Sanskrit Labh, which dropping the 
aspirate h, becomes in Greek XafS, with sco, contracted to &>, 
\a/3co, whence s-Xa/3-ov, called by Grammarians a Second 
Aorist, but which appears to me to be a regular Imperfect. 

xlix. 'Aw, Spiro (Sum). 

I am induced to notice this verb merely for the sake of 
remarking, that it is probably cognate with, and indeed a 
Doric form of the obsolete sco, Sum. We find it in Greek as 
the termination of many compound verbs. 

L. List of Verbs of the same signification of two, three, four, 
and five terminations, all of which are different forms 
of the Auxiliary Verb, to be. 



The Verb. 


Signification. 


Root. 


Termination. 


ad-eio 


placeo . . . 


ad . 


ew, Sum. 


ad-oj .... 


5) • 






5? • 






w, contract, of ew. 


av8-avu) 


» 






avd 






avoj, Sum. 


aXd-eio 


augeo 






aXd 






ew, Sum. 


aXS-aivoj 


5» 






5i 






avo), Sum. 


a\d-r](JKOJ 


3? 






•)•) 






eaicu), Sum. 


aX-ooj 


capio 






aX 






zoj, Sum. 


a\-a>fii . 


5? 






)» • 






eof^ai, Sum. 


a\-i(ricoj , 


■)■> ' 






» • 






£<tkwi Sum. 



THE GKEEK VERB. 



185 



The Verb. 


Signification. 


Root. 


Termination. 


afjuxpr-eu) 


aberro . . . 


afiapr 


. tw, Sum. 


afxapr-avcj . 


>»"■•• 


ii 


. av(*), Sum. 


ap-euj 


placeo . . . 


ap . . 


. ew, Sum. 


ap-SCTKOJ . 


,, • . . • 


55 " • ' 


o fovcw, Sum. 


j3a-it) .... 


eo .... 


Ba, or Va, S 
skrit, go. 


an- w, contract, of £<*>. 


(3a-ivoj . 


55 


55 


. avco, Sum. 


/3i-€a-w . 


75 


55 




. to, contract, of £w. 


/3i€-?7/xi . 


!5 # 


55 




. et/xi, Sum. 


/3io-a> 


vivo .... 


(3lO . 




. to, contract, of eco. 


(5i-u)f.a 


5) .... 


55 




eopiai, Sum. 


j3l-U)(TKii) . 


»>•••'• 


55 




. so-few, Sum. 


(3\ct(TT-£(i) 


geraiino . . 


/3\a<7T 




. 6w, Sum. 


j3\ct(TT-avi)j . 


,,.... 


55 




. aw, Sum. 


j3po-(o 


edo . . . . 


Ppo . . 




. to, contract, of tw. 


/3|0-to/U . 


,, . . . . 


55 




. eopiai, Sum. 


fip-uxncb) . "1 

f3l-€p-(i)<TK(i) . J 


ii • 


55 




. eoTCto, Sum. 


i\a-tx> 


propitius sum . 


ika 




. to, contract, of £w. 


iXa-ofjiai . 


55 . . • 


ii 




. eofxai, Sum. 


iXa-cr/cojUort . 








f wkw \ a double 


55 • . . 


55 


\ eofiaij Aux. Verb. 


fxva-u) 


in memoriam 


fiva, Sansk 


rit, to, contract, of too. 




revoco. 


mind. 




fjiva-ofiai 


35 ... 


53 


. eofiai, Sum. 


fJllfA,V-r)(JKli) . 


55 • • . 


55 




. eoKU), Sum. 


oiS-aco 


tumeo . . . 


OlS 




. aw, Sum (Spiro). 


Old-Sh) . . . 


55 • • • 


55 • 




. to;, Sum. 


oid-avw . 


55 * 


55 • 




. avw, Sum. 


oid-aivd) . 








f aw 1 a double 


55 • 


5? • 




\ avo> J Aux. Verb. 


Old-lGKh) . 


55 • 


53 • 




. fo-Kto, Sum. 


0(p\-U) 


debeo . . . 


0(p\ 




. to, contract, of «w. 


o<p\-s(ij . 


55 • 


35 




. . tto, Sum. 


o0«iX-a> . 


55 • • 


55 • 




. . w, contract, of £w. 


0<pu\-£(O . 


,,..... 


55 




. . £to, Sum. 


0^)X-l(TKaVU) . 








J £<jkoj \ a double 


55 * 


53 




\ avco J A-ux. Verb. 


7T0-W .... 


bibo . . . . 


7TO 




. . to, contract, of ao. 


•7TI-W . 


55 • . . . 


7ri, Sansk 
drink. 


rit, to, „ 


TTl-VU) 


55 . . . . 


33 


. avw, Sum. 


7Tl-fJ,l .... 


55 • 


55 


. . ei/ti, Sum. 


7T-W/U 


55 . . . . 


7TO 


. eopai, Sum. 


7Tl7r-l07eto 


55 • . . . 


7TI 


. £07cto, Sum. 


Tpa-h) 


perforo . . . 


rpi, Sansl 


:rit, a;, contract, of eco. 






pass over 


go 






across. 




rpo-u) 


55 • 


55 


. . w, „ 


. rps-oj 


,,.... 


35 


. . to, „ 


Tt-TpCL-to) 


55 • 


55 


. . w, „ 


ri-rpa-ivoj . 


55 * • • 


55 




. avto, Sum. 



186 



THE GKEEK VERB. 



The Verb. 


Signification. 


Root. 


Termination. 


ri-Tp-rifii 

Tl-Tp- OJGKU) . 

Xa-<TKOJ . 


perforo . . . 
hisco . . . 


rpi, Sanskrit, 
pass over, go 
across. 

,, ... 

KCL .... 


ei/xi, Sum. 

toco), Sum. 

aw, Sum. 

fovea;, Sum. 

e<TK<o \ double ter- 

aZoj J mination. 


,, .... 


;;...,{ 



On the Irregular Greek Verb, as dependent on and modified 
by the Root or Theme. 

Dr. Vincent, the learned Dean of "Westminster, in his 
second work * on the Greek verb, says, " if I am to establish 
E or EI, as the element of the verb EH or EIMI, and con- 
sequently of all other verbs, I must be allowed to call this 
not the root but the basis of EO. MENU, IIEPAfl, 
AEm, are as usual roots of MONIMOS, II0P02, AOr03 ; 
but the basis is MEN, IIEP, AEIY' It appears to me that 
this is a distinction without a difference, at least a substan- 
tial difference, as I believe the origin of the Greek verb Msv-co, 
I remain, to be the Sanskrit Dhato, or verbal root Man, fix, 
stop, and of Asy-co, I say, the Sanskrit Dhato Lok, speak, or 
tell ; and that therefore it would be merely a source of per- 
plexity to endeavour to establish a difference between root 
and basis in the Greek language, or the Latin either, as both 
contain very few words in a simple state. However just Dr. 
Vincent's distinction between basis and root may be theoreti- 
cally, practically I greatly prefer the following statement of 
Thiersch : " Since no thought stands independently, but 
always in some sort of relation, or according to the phrase of 
grammar, always in some case, in some person, and the like, 
hence to the original basis of the word letters and syllables 
are added, in order to represent these cases, persons, fyc. Thus 
the word is subject to certain alterations, and its root is that 
part which lies at the basis of these alterations ; e.g. we find 
Sripos, thipcrc, &r)pss, Srjpt, &c. At the bottom of all these 
forms lies £h)p which is therefore the root of the word. The 
syllables which remain, after taking away the mutable por- 

* The Greek Verb Analysed, an Hypothesis, 1795. 



THE GREEK VERB. 187 

tion of the word, are called the radical syllables ; the others 
may be called the formal syllables ; i. e. those which are used 
for the alterations of the word and the production of the 
necessary forms." (Grammar, p. 60.) By the root of a 
word I understand the unity, homogeneity, or uncom- 
pounded state of that word, altogether unconjoined with 
other words ; and we meet with few such roots in the Greek 
and Latin languages, which having derived them from the 
Oriental tongues have united the Verbal roots to some form 
of the Verb Substantive, the Auxiliary Verb To be, and the 
Substantive ones with some form of the Personal Pronoun, 
which in a great majority of instances is Os, tj, ov, he, she, it, 
as terminations, and this is the state in which we find the 
great mass of the words in Greek and Latin lexicons. For 
the genuine roots we must resort to Asia, and more especially 
Scythia, Tartary, or Scandinavia, the north of Asia, the 
true cradle of all the European race ; and when we have dis- 
covered them, we shall generally remark the two following 
circumstances. 

1st. That the root of most Verbs is a Noun Substantive. 

2nd. That the primitive meaning of that Noun Substan- 
tive never disappears in all the various modifications and 
shades of signification of the Verb, however numerous they 
may be. 

Let us take, in the first instance, the irregular verb Alisko, 
capio. We find it existing in three states, as the Port 
Royal Greek Grammar derives some of its tenses from an 
obsolete, Aloo, thus 

AX-oo). 
AX.-0) \xi. 

AX-LOTKG). 

The terminations are clearly and undeniably so many diffe- 
rent forms of the Auxiliary Verb To be, Eo>, Eo/^at, and 
Eer/ow or Io-kgo ; but what is the simple root Al ? If I turn 
to a Turkish dictionary, I discover that Al signifies the 
hand, which explains, in the most satisfactory manner, the 
meaning of the Greek verb, viz. to take, or lay hold on. 
The Turks were originally a northern people, and though 



188 THE GREEK VERB. 

their language has borrowed largely both from the Persic 
and Arabic, its basis is Tartaric, and we may regard Al, the 
hand, as a Pelasgic or Scythic root, which has no existence 
in Greek as a Noun Substantive, but is clearly the basis 
of the verb Alisko in all its forms, and assuming AX-sa) as 
the Greek theme, what are called the Second Aorists, but 
which are really the Imperfects, become almost regular, 
rjkwv common Greek, and saXcov Attic. Alo, or Alisko, is 
rendered in Latin by Capio ; and what is the etymology of 
Capio ? We find in Hebrew the word Caph, signifying the 
palm of the hand ; and rejecting the final aspirate letter, and 
writing Cap-io or Cap-eo, there can be little doubt that the 
Latin verb is formed in precisely the same way as the 
Greek, the Noun Substantive imparting its own meaning to 
both. 

The Persians, by prefixing B, and also Y or I to the 
Turkish or Scythic word Al, the hand, appear to have 
formed Bal and Yal, words both signifying the arm, and in 
Greek we find the verb Ballo, jacio, and lallo, mitto ; the 
Oriental noun again imparting its meaning to the verb, the 
arm being the principal instrument in the acts of throwing 
and placing. The Greeks obviously added a redundant 
Lambda to the Oriental roots in both instances, which was 
as clearly done with a view to lengthening the Alpha. By 
joining that root to the obsolete verb Eo we have 

JSaX-sco, the real Present Tense. 

BaX-w, the same Tense contracted, and miscalled the Second 

Future. 
~E{3a\ov, its regular Imperfect, miscalled the Second Aorist. 

And from the Hellenised root, fiaXX-co, Present, e/3aXX-ov, 
Imperfect. Yal, or Ial, in Persic signifies both the hand and 
arm, and the verb laXXco in Homer, which he applies to 
helping one's self at table, appears to signify a laying on of 
hands with greater animation than is quite agreeable to the 
precepts of the Chesterfield School, as his heroes seem to 
have rarely suffered from dyspepsia. In Persic we also find 
the word Panjah, signifying both the palm of the hand, and 



THE GREEK VERB. 189 

the hand with the fingers expanded. The root is clearly the 
Persic word Panj, five, which passed into Greek in a modi- 
fied form, and gave birth to the verb irsfiTra^w, to count by 
fives, which Homer employs to describe the mode in which 
Proteus counted his seals. 

The Greek verbs, the most irregular in their formation, are 
those in pi, and we shall discover, on close examination, that 
even in them this irregularity is more apparent than real, 
and that it arises out of the ambiguous way in which the 
root was written. If we take TiQr\yn, larrnjut, SiSay/uui, and 
&vyvv/jLL, the examples in the Eton Grammar, the formative 
appears to be Et/u, sum ; and if we suppose Itj/uli, mitto, to 
be in many of its tenses a dialectical variety of the same 
verb, we shall have all the terminations of riOrjfu letter by 
letter, the simple root being Th, or the letter Theta, and the 
initial Ti, a reduplication, the word that approximates to it 
most closely in Greek being ©£/<kz, that which is put, from 
which ® may be contracted, as we find Homer using Ato for 
Awfia. But iGT-rjfM, though it is formed like tiO-tjju in the 
Singular, makes lo-r-arov and [gt-ci/u,sv in the Dual and 
Plural, substituting a for the s of the formative Auxiliary 
verb, To be. Why is this ? I believe the question can be 
answered only by referring to the root, which appears to be 
the Sanskrit Shtha, stand, stay. Rejecting the aspirate H's 
we have for the simple root Sta, which we recognize in the 
Greek ara-ay and the Latin Sto, its contracted form. It 
was material to retain the A, as it forms an essential part of 
the Sanskrit root, being long and therefore written, A (short) 
being understood, and never written except at the beginning 
of a word. We have t, prefix err, simple root, and 7]fju, I 
am, formative, the final A of the root being dropped in the 
Singular ; but in the Dual and Plural it is resumed, and the 
E of the formative is dropped, which we found unchanged 
throughout all the persons of tiQt)ixi. The root of SlSco/jlc 
appears to be the Sanskrit Dada, a biliteral, the A's being 
short, and therefore understood, which left the Greeks at 
liberty to change the vowels, retaining the consonants, which 
they did by forming SiSoco and SiBcofu, and accordingly w has 



190 THE GREEK VERB. 

supplanted the y of the formative 77/u, in the Persons of the 
Singular, and o in the same way s in the Dual and Plural. 
Zsvyvv/u appears to be formed from Qvyvv-co. H is clearly a 
contraction of the auxiliary sco, leaving Quyvv for the root ; 
and we find the v supplanting the 77 and the s of the for- 
mative rjfii, throughout all the Persons. 

It is curious to observe how nearly the irregular verbs 
may be made to approximate to perfect regularity by our 
finding in some instances not merely one but two Dhatos, or 
verbal roots, in Sanskrit. The Port Royal Greek Grammar 
says very truly, " most of the verbs are irregular for no other 
reason but because they either form or are formed from 
other verbs," or, in other words, are not irregular at all. 
With regard to the Greek verb Lambano, for example, we 
find two of its roots, Labh and Lambhi in Sanskrit, and none 
at all in Greek. The latter indeed is denominated by Hindu 
Grammarians its causative form; but that form, in many 
instances, does not differ at all in signification from the 
common one, which is never, I think, the case with the 
Hebrew verb in Hiphil. 

Tenses formed from the Sanskrit root Labh (obtain, at- 
tain, get) : — 

Present Tense, Ayftco (obsolete). 

2. Future, Aafico. 

2. Aorist E-A<z/3o*/. 

Perfect, AsXrjcjxz. 

a. 2. Imperative, Aa/3s. 

a. 2. Participle, Aaficov, 

a. 2. Opt. Act. AaftoL/uLi. 

a. 2. Subj. Aafico. 

a. 1. Pass. E-Arj^v. 

Future Mid. Arp^rofxai. 

Tenses formed from the Sanskrit root Lambhi : — 
Present Tense, Aafjufi-avco (in use) 

Aa/jL-^rofjuai, Ionic for Arjyjr- 

o/jLai, accipiam. 
'E-\afM(j)0r]V > Ionic for EXrjcf) 
6r)v, acceptus sum. 



THE GREEK VERB. 191 

The Port Royal Greek Grammar appears to regard the 
M as redundant ; but I have little doubt that we find it in 
Greek, because it was found in the Sanskrit root Lambhi. 
There is another remarkable circumstance, that not a trace 
of the aspirate H, which we may observe in both the San- 
skrit roots, appears in the Greek. The real fact is, that the 
Greeks were unable to write it by any contrivance, after 
they had impoverished their alphabet by displacing the Phoe- 
nician Heth as an aspirate letter, and converting the form 
of the letter, the power being lost, into a mere contraction 
in writing, for expressing two Epsilons, or short vowels, in 
a single character. Of the twelve aspirate letters, for which 
we find appropriate forms in Sanskrit, and of which bh is 
one, the Greeks were totally unable to express the h, after a 
consonant, except by their three aspirate letters Theta, Phi, 
and Chi. In the former part of the verb the Port Royal 
inserts the artificial or conjectural Second Future \a/3a), ac- 
cording to their views, for the sake of forming the Second 
Aorist eXafiov; but as Labo has much better pretensions 
than Lebo to be regarded as the real Present Tense, as it 
approximates as near to the Sanskrit root Labh, as the Greeks 
were enabled to write, with their mutilated alphabet destitute 
of the aspirate letter H, it would be more correct, it appears 
to me, to call Elabon an Imperfect than a Second Aorist, as 
it is formed from Labo, in strict conformity with, the general 
rule ; and, indeed, I do not believe that there is really any 
Second Future, or Second Aorist, in the Greek language. 

Ayco, duco. Root Ak, Persic, a master, lord, with co, con- 
tracted from the absolete Ea>. The Persic Ak 
is the Turkish Aga, a military officer whom the 
modern Greeks have had occasion to know too 
well. Imperfect H70V, commonly called Second 
Aorist. 

AfjiapT-avco, pecco. The termination appears to me to be the 
Syriac Ano, I, or I am, and the common form 
of the verb to have been AfiapTO) (obsolete), 
whence the Imperfect ^Hpaprov, commonly called 
the Second Aorist. 



192 THE GREEK VERB. 

Av^avco, et Av %co, augeo. Here we have the two terminations, 
the first of which may be called the Syriac, from 
Ano ; the second the Greek, contracted from the 
obsolete Eqj. From Auxano, Hvgavov, the Im- 
perfect, commonly called the Second Aorist. 

Baivo), vado. There are two Sanskrit roots, from which this 
verb may probably be derived, Ya and Yi (go), 
Y and B in that language being exchangeable. 
Baino appears to be the root Ba, with the Syriac 
Ano, I ; and the original Present in Greek was 
probably Ba-co. whence the Imperfect, or 
Second Aorist, ~H/3t]v. 

BXaaravo), germino. Termination Ano, Syriac, obsolete Greek 
form BXacrr-co, whence the regular Imperfect 
T&pXao-Tov, commonly called the Second Aorist. 

TtvcocTKco, cognosco. What is called the Second Aorist, E7- 
vcov, is almost a regular Imperfect, from the 
obsolete theme, Tvoco, nosco. 

Acuco, disco. Boot, Daiah (Hebrew), knowledge, with co 
contracted from the obsolete Ea>. 

Kkavvco, abigo. Boot, Ila (Sanskrit), go, with co contracted 
from the obsolete Eg), sum. 

EXaco (obsolete), EXavco (Doric). 
Fut. EXaaco. 
Aor. 1. HXaaa. 
Pret. HXafca. 
In the present form of Elauno its termination 
appears to be Ano (Syriac), I, I am. 

E^o>, habeo. Most of the tenses are derived from the aspi- 
rated form by transposition, S%£ft>, whence Ea^ov, 
which is called a Second Aorist, but is almost a 
regular Imperfect. 

®vr)(TfC(o, morior. What is called the Second Aorist appears 
to me to be a regular Imperfect, formed from 
the obsolete (davo), which, when circumflexed, 
is called the Second Future, which tense, 
together with the Second Aorist, appear to me 



THE GREEK VERB. 193 

to be the pure inventions of Grammarians, the 
first being a Present and the second an Imper- 
fect. From (davco ILOavov, cognate %avaros 9 
death. 

Aayxavco, sortior. Root, Aa^r), sors, obsolete form Aap, 
whence the regular Imperfect EXa^ov, called the 
Second Aorist. 

MavOavco, disco. The root of this verb appears to me to be 
Mantis, an interpreter, with the Syriac Ano, I ; 
and in another form we have Mathesis, knowledge, 
Mathetes, a disciple, and MaOco (obsolete), I learn, 
whence the regular Imperfect Fj/madov, called the 
Second Aorist. 

MeXo), euro. 'E/ulsXov, called the Second Aorist, appears to 
me to be really the Imperfect. 

Uivco, bibo. E7JY0V, called the Second Aorist, is really an 

Imperfect, formed regularly from the obsolete 

Ulco, which itself was formed from the Sanskrit 

Dhato, or Verbal root Pi, drink, by the addition 

of w, contracted from the obsolete Eco, Sanskrit 

Pi, drink, Greek Pio, I drink. 

... "l Tracha, 
m \ cognate with the rp i 

l> X a>, curro. | Sangkrit f Traucha, 

J Trago, 

signifying to go ; but neither of these roots gives 

any thing like the etymology of Edramon, which 

in fact has about as much natural connection 

with them as the victims of Procrustes with the 

iron bed on which he laid them, and who indeed 

appears to have been the prototype of the whole 

family of Grammarians. In Sanskrit we find 

the Dhato, or verbal root Drama, go ; hence 

Apa/A-co, with go, contracted from Eco ; 

'E-BpafjL-ov, the regular Imperfect, called the 
Second Aorist. 
Ti7 X av«, sortior, from TvyxVi sors (obsolete), and Ano 
(Syriac) ; from Tvxv> sors, Ti^co, and Eti^ov, the 
Imperfect, called the Second Aorist. 



194 THE GREEK VERB. 

Qspco, fero. It would be much easier and better to suppose 
an obsolete Evsyfcco, than to arrange most of these 
tenses under Phero. From Evsjkq), the Imper- 
fect Hvsyfcov, called the Second Aorist. 

®0avG), prsevenio. If we suppose an obsolete c^dacc, almost 
all the tenses will become regular; the present 
termination appears to be the Syriae Ano, I, 
I am. 

$>va>, gigno. What is called the Second Aorist, Ecpvov, 
appears to be the regular Imperfect. 



195 



CHAP. XVI. 

ETRUKIA. FUNEREAL, OR BILINGUAL INSCRIPTIONS. 



Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini, 

Hanc Remus et frater : sic fortis Etruria crevit, 

Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma." 

Virg. Georg. lib. ii. 



I. The first question to be asked, before engaging in this 
inquiry, is, — Is there any Etruscan language at all ; that is, 
a language which was spoken by the people of ancient Tus- 
cany, and no other people ? or was that language merely a 
dialect of the Greek or of the Latin, or a compound of both. 
A peculiar alphabet does not necessarily suppose the existence 
of a peculiar language, nor on the other hand does a similarity 
of alphabet, as a matter of course, infer a similarity of lan- 
guage. The Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Samaritan, are 
usually written in a character peculiar to each ; yet the first 
is almost identical with the second, and the third rather a 
dialect of the Hebrew than a distinct language ; while the 
Arabic, the Persic, and the Turkish, have very nearly the 
same alphabet ; languages, which though they cannot be said 
to have nothing in common, are nevertheless radically and 
essentially different. The Etruscan, however, cannot be said 
to have an alphabet peculiar to itself; its alphabet, on the 
contrary, is almost, if not entirely Greek ; not, indeed, the 
Greek of the age of Pericles, but as it appears in the oldest 
existing inscriptions of which Lanzi exhibits five or six fac- 
similes ; and, though he must have been aware of the fact, I 
do not remember that he has any where distinctly remarked, 
that what is called the Etruscan alphabet is really the al- 
phabet of the oldest Greek inscriptions, as found existing in 
Greece Proper, and in the colonies planted by her in Asia 
Minor. 

ii. A judicious writer in the " Memoires des Inscriptions et 

o 2 



106 ETRURIA, 

Belles Lettres," has the following remarks on the subject ; — 
" We have a great number of monuments and inscriptions in 
the language of Etruria published by the savans of Italy. 
Of these inscriptions some are in Latin, and some in Etruscan 
characters ; that is to say, in those ancient characters which 
the Phoenicians introduced into Greece and Spain, and which 
are found on the Spanish money published by Count Las- 
tanosa. Those characters have a close relation with the 
Samaritan letters, but little resemblance to those which are 
seen on the medals of Tyre, Sidon, Cadiz, and many other 
maritime cities. The Etruscan inscriptions in Roman letters 
are not more intelligible than the others, though we meet 
with many Latin words disfigured. The interpretations 
which some learned men have pretended to give of them, are 
altogether chance guesses, combinations of Latin, Greek, and 
Hebrew words, altered so as not to be recognised. By re- 
sorting to the same licence, these inscriptions might be proved 
to have something in common with any language in existence, 
the Armorican, Basque, or Mexican. It is worthy of remark, 
that the authors of those interpretations have made no use of 
the Etruscan words, of which the meaning has been trans- 
mitted to us by the ancients. We may observe, in conclusion, 
that it is anything but proved that these monuments possess 
the great antiquity ascribed to them. Those which are in 
Latin letters, judging by their form, must be posterior to the 
conquest of Etruria by the Romans, and go back at farthest 
to the time of the first Punic war. (Choix des Memoires, 
t. ii. p. 103.) 

III. This statement is not very encouraging it must be 
confessed, and that of Lanzi himself, in his " Saggio di Lingua 
Etrusca," perhaps the best work that has yet appeared on the 
subject, is not much more so. His views are contained in 
the following passage : " In an orthography which now 
lengthens and now shortens final syllables, in a language in 
which we know that Upsilon is substituted for Alpha, but 
in which we do not know in what words ; IN A COLLECTION 
OF INSCRIPTIONS SO BADLY PRESERVED, AND SO VARIOUSLY 
READ, THAT TEN TRANSCRIBERS PRODUCE TEN DISCORDANT 



FUNEREAL INSCRIPTIONS. 197 

COPIES ; whatever degree of diligence may be exerted, it is 
difficult to ascertain all that might be effected in other lan- 
guages not encumbered with the same perplexities. Still 
I cannot but remember that Greek and Latin inscriptions 
were at one period similarly situated, and that those things 
are now quite obvious, which in the time of Mazzochi and 
Cyriaco Anconitano were regarded as mysteries. In the 
same way, in proportion as the number of inscriptions, and 
the industry of scholars increase, we may hope that new light 
will be thrown on Etruscan literature, and that my disco- 
veries will be regarded at least as a road and a beginning to 
many others," (Saggio, torn. ii. p. 334.) 

iv. The instances of Greek and Latin inscriptions, adduced 
by Lanzi, are hy no means parallel cases. In both we knew 
what language we were attempting to interpret, and were 
provided with grammars and lexicons, which not only ex- 
plained every word, but the mode in which the meaning of 
that word was modified by its various terminations, and if we 
had had neither grammars nor lexicons, the difficulties would 
have been by no means insurmountable to a man of talent and 
industry, as both the Greek and Latin languages possess a 
copious literature preserved in books altogether independent 
of inscriptions ; the only difference would have been, that 
every individual in his own case would have been obliged to 
proceed on the principles on which grammars and lexicons 
were originally formed. But in what is called the Etruscan, 
we do not even know all the letters, and Lanzi himself has 
certainly mistaken many. Indeed, so many and so various 
are those which occur in the course of the work, that it 
appears to be a grand congress of letters, to which almost all 
the alphabets of the ancient world have each delegated two 
or three letters as representatives ; and from my own know- 
ledge I can mention the Coptic, Hebrew, Samaritan, or 
Phoenician, the Estrangolo or old Syriac, the common or 
modern Syriac, and the Sanskrit, together with every variety 
of form that ever prevailed in the Greek characters, either 
in Greece Proper, in Asia Minor, or in Magna Grascia. In 
the next place, when we talk of Etruscan, we do not know 

o 3 



198 ETRURIA. 

of what language we are speaking, being obliged to include 
under that term all the remains that have been discovered 
with legends in Etruscan, or more properly ancient Greek 
characters, for they are, for the most part, very little more; so 
that, in undertaking to read Etruscan, we do in fact undertake 
to read all the dialects or languages that ever prevailed in 
ancient Italy, of which any monuments exist, as well as the 
obsolete Greek and Latin with which they are mixed. In 
the third place, and this is the great difficulty, we are obliged 
to explain the inscriptions by the inscriptions themselves, as 
we are so far from having any specimens of the language in 
books, that I do not believe all the Greek and Latin gram- 
marians, lexicographers, scholiasts, and commentators, united, 
could furnish us with a sentence of ten consecutive words, of 
which we could say that they are certainly Etrurian, that is> 
peculiar to that people, and that we are at the same time 
quite certain as to their meaning. Lanzi supposes the Eu- 
gubine tables to be the production of the seventh century of 
Rome. The beauty and regularity of the characters, and the 
extraordinary state of preservation in which they have come 
down to us, would induce me to fix on a late period of the 
Empire for their date, and to suppose that they had been re- 
newed once, or perhaps twice, after all knowledge of the 
Etruscan language was lost ; the sculptors copying the old 
tables without understanding them, and of course being 
unable to restore letters partially erased by time or accident, 
frequently substituting one for another when they were at all 
similar in form ; and finally, from not knowing the words, 
placing the divisions between them arbitrarily and erro- 
neously, and running them into each other ; to say nothing of 
the great probability, and almost certainty, that some of them 
were greatly contracted, as is the case in almost all the re- 
maining Roman inscriptions. For these reasons I doubt if 
the Eugubine tables exhibit a specimen of any language that 
was ever actually spoken or written by any race of mankind, 
and feel convinced that in the present state of our knowledge, 
we cannot attempt to explain what are called Etruscan in- 
scriptions, with any hope of success, unless they are bilingual, 



FUNEREAL INSCRIPTIONS. 199 

that is, accompanied by a Latin translation, as is the case 
with the greater part of those that are funereal. 

# iv. The Eugubine Tables were discovered in 1444, and 
the language in which they are written was at first thought 
to be Coptic, or old Egyptian. Spanheim denominated 
the letters primitive or Cadmean Greek, while Reinesius 
thought they were Punic. They soon began to be called 
Etruscan, though the language was conceived to be Umbric, 
and many unsuccessful attempts were made to form an 
alphabet. (Lanzi, torn. i. p. 9.) In the year 1732, nearly 
300 years after the Eugubine Tables had been discovered, 
Bourguet, a learned Frenchman, nearly succeeded in making 
out the aphabet by a careful comparison of the Latin with 
the Etruscan tables. He was followed by Gori in 1737, 
and Maffei in 1739 ; and the result of their joint labours was 
the formation of an alphabet, which from that period has 
been pretty generally acquiesced in, though not without 
considerable misgivings on some points neither few nor 
unimportant. (Tom. i. p. 10.) Mazzochi supposed the ex- 
istence of an earlier and later Etruscan, the former cognate 
with the Oriental tongues ; the latter preserved in some 
measure by the remains of art, and having little or nothing 
in common with the languages of Asia. Bourguet and 
Gori conceived the Etruscan to be most analogous to Greek, 
the letters being almost entirely Greek, while Lami, Passeri, 
and Maffei, on the contrary, thought it bore a much stronger 
resemblance to Latin. (Tom. i. p. 11.) Maffei, while he 
combated Bourguet's notion of explaining the inscriptions 
on the sarcophagi brought to light, by the bassi-relievi 
attached to them, in which he was probably quite right, ran 
into as great an error himself by his predilection for recurring 
to the Hebrew language on every occasion. Lami, whose 
work appears to be rather ironical than serious, nevertheless 
threw much light on the subject, which was still more 
illustrated by that of Passeri in 1737 containing some 
valuable observations on the Eugubine tables, on the names 
of the Etruscans, and more especially on the Etruscan 
epitaphs. (Tom. i. p. 13.) 

o 4 



200 ETRUKIA. 

v. Under the denomination of Ancient Languages of 
Italy, says Lanzi, we may include the Euganean, Volscian, 
Oscan, Samnitic, and Umbrian, in the latter of which the 
ritual of Gubbio is thought to be written. The letters of 
all these languages are either nearly or altogether the same 
as those of Etruria. The words of which we derive some 
knowledge from books or monuments, are the same ; and the 
inflexions of those words, so far as we are capable of under- 
standing them, appear to be the same. (Tom. i. p. 15.) 

VI. If the information contained in this paragraph be 
correct, as I believe it to be, Lanzi has unconsciously pro- 
nounced a censure on the course pursued by himself, as he 
has devoted one of his four indexes to Oscan, Yolscian, 
Euganean, &c. words. Such a proceeding is certainly pre- 
mature under present circumstances, and perhaps desperate 
under any that are likely to occur in future. To expect to 
discover books in the Etruscan language is altogether out of 
the question. We are not likely to make any great addition 
to our stock of inscriptions; and those which we possess 
already, instead of becoming more, must be every year less 
legible, from the operation of the weather, the effects of 
age, and the injuries of accident. What materials have we 
for treating of each language in particular ; or how can we 
expect to establish the dialects of a language, the Etruscan, 
while we know nothing with certainty respecting the language 
itself? Surely it is much safer, in the present state of our 
knowledge, to regard Euganean, Yolscian, Oscan, Samnitic, 
Umbrian, and the Etruscan itself, as the general language 
of ancient Italy, and to treat of them in connexion. To 
use the expression of Mr. Macleod, the sceptical political 
economist in Miss Edgeworth's incomparable tale of Ennui, 
" it may be doubted " if we can proceed with much success 
to form a grammar of any language, until we know all the 
letters of that language, and such is our position with respect 
to the Etruscan, to say nothing of its dialects. 

vii. In the year 1772 a posthumous work of the Jesuit 
Bardetti was published under the title " Delia Lingua de' 



FUNEREAL INSCRIPTIONS. 201 

Primi Abitatori dell' Italia ; " and he has given the following 
list of Etruscan words, together with their authorities, — 

Andas, the north wind Hesychius. 

Antar, an eagle ........ „ 

Byrros, a cup „ 

Camillus, a name of Mercury . . . Servius. 

Cupra, a name of Juno Strabo. 

Damnos, a horse Hesychius. 

Druna, head or chief „ 

Gapos, a vehicle or chariot .... „ 

Hister, a player „ 

Histrio, Latin. 

Istorio, Italian, a history. 

Iduare, to divide Macrobius. 

Induare, Italian, to part in two. 

Lucumon, a prince Dionysius. 

Mantus, a name of Pluto .... Servius. 

Sabulo, a flute player Festus. 

The same author informs us that Maffei had given a list of 
sixty -nine, and Mazzochi of sixty -two Etruscan words, but 
that he had little confidence in either, and perhaps of those 
he has given himself it would be difficult to prove that a 
single word was peculiar to the Etruscans. 

VIII. Explanation of the Funereal, or Bilingual Inscriptions. 

No. 1. The Etruscan reads L. Cae. Caulias. 

The Latin has Lart. Caii. Caulias. 

If I had found the L standing alone in both languages, I 
should have entertained little doubt that it was an abbrevia- 
tion of the Latin word Lar used in the sense of house, i. e. 
Domus (ultima) Caise Caulias. Caulias appears to be a 
Greek Genitive case of the second declension in the Doric 
dialect. (Lanzi, torn. ii. p. 341. edit. 1789.) 

No. 2. Etruscan Senti Filina. 

Latin Sentia Sex. F 

I suppose Sentia Sexti Filia. The Filina, however, in 
the Etruscan is very remarkable, as it looks like the feminine 



202 ETRURIA. 

of the Italian diminutive Figliolino, a little son, making the 
complete sense to be Sentia, the little or young daughter 
of Sextus (understood). Perhaps it was not considered ne- 
cessary to express it, as it was a family vault, and the name 
written at the entrance. 

No. 8. Etruscan A. Flave. A. Seisnal. 

Latin A. Flavius A. F. Caecina nat. 

Lanzi would read Seisnal, as he does in all similar in- 
stances ; but I believe the final letter is not an Etruscan 
Lambda, but a small Greek Nu (V). I also suspect that the 
I and second S have been transposed ; and with these altera- 
tions the Etruscan becomes Latin, written in ancient Greek 
characters, A. Flave A. Cecina n(atus). 

No. 10. Etruscan Af. Lecu Ril. xxi. 

Latin Aul. Laeca. An. xix. 

This is worth transcribing on account of the numbers, 
which reading from right to left, more Etrusco, agree with the 
Latin. Any one who has paid much attention to the 
Roman mode of notation, may, from this circumstance, form 
some conjecture as to the age of the inscription. 

No. 12. Etruscan Ls. Flabei Ls. Curia, n. Ril. 

Latin Lar. Flavius. Laris. F. Curia. 

nat. An. 

I believe the inscription was intended for two persons, and 
that we ought to read as under : — 

Laribus Flavii. 

Laribus F Curia, nat. Ann. 

There certainly can be no great objection to reading the 
Latin Lar in the same sense as Manes, the ordinary com- 
mencement of Roman funereal inscriptions, Dis Manibus. 

No. 15. Etruscan Lari: s: Fecusni : Herinia. n. 

Latin c . .Lar. Vesconius, Herinia. nat. 

I believe we ought to read Lari : s : Laribus, in the sense 
of Manibus — Laribus Yesconii Herinia natus. 



FUNEREAL INSCRIPTIONS. 203 

f This character, which is generally T, and sometimes D, 
appears to have been used here as P, which, from its simi- 
larity in sound to F, was rendered in the Latin by Y. 

No. 21. Etruscan Tana. Titi. Au. 

Latin Thannia. Titia. Aul. F. 

I believe the first word is Tana, Italian, a cave, and the 
meaning of the inscription, the cave of Titia, the daughter of 
Aulus. 

In No. 18. it is remarkable that the Etruscan number XT 
is rendered in the Latin by LX. If the Latin be correct, 
there is no mode of making the Etruscan agree with it but 
by reading r as 7T, and supposing it to be a contraction for 
the Greek word Pentekonta, fifty, a most unusual mode of 
writing. 

No. 41. Etruscan Tana Seianti Latinia n. 

Latin Thannia Sejantia Latiniae nata. 

That is, the cave of Sejantia, the daughter of Latinia; 
Tana, Italian, a cave. 

No. 54. Etruscan Ar. Tins Beletia n. 

Latin Aruntia Tinii. Yeletiae nata. 

It is worth remarking that the initial letter of Yeletia in 
the Etruscan is clearly Beth, the second letter of the 
Hebrew alphabet, which has the power both of B and Y, 
and is rendered in the Latin by the latter letter. 

No. 55. Etruscan. Fe Tins Beletia n. 

Latin Yeb. Tinius Yeletia natus. 

This character O is not the aspirate Theta, or th, but t 
only, here and in many other instances. Here we have the 
Hebrew Beth again. 

No. 188. Etruscan Larthiasses. 

Latin Larthiaxes. 

The Latin X, in this place, has obviously the power of 
double Sigma, and the Romans probably formed it originally 



204 ETRURIA. 

by placing two Sigmas back to back, thus )£ — }£, and the 
mode in which the Italians write Xenophon, Senofonte, is 
clearly a vestige of this origin. The Greeks appear to have 
formed their double letter Xi by placing Kappa > , and 
Sigma C, back to back, or at any rate such was undoubtedly 
its power. 

No. 191. Etruscan Mikalairuphuius. 

Latin Sum. Callairi. F. 

The doubt here is, how we are to divide Kalairuphuius. 
If we place a stop after the Phi, we suppose the name to be 
Kalairuphus, or Kalairufus, and the third word will be the 
Greek Uios, written with Upsilon instead of Omicron. And 
if we suppose an Ei, which preceded Mi, to have been ob- 
literated, the inscription will be altogether Greek, ~Ei/jU KaXat- 
pv(f>. Tto9. If, on the other hand, we read the Phi with Uios 
we must suppose that it is an Etruscan word formed from 
the Greek Phuo, gigno ; or that the Coptic article masculine 
Ph stands prefixed to Uios ; unless indeed we prefer regard- 
ing; the Phi as a substitute for Diojamma. 

No. 252. Etruscan Lar. Apini Cecu. 

Latin Lar. Apinius Caecus. 

I think we may safely read this, Domus (subauditur 
ultima) Apinii C«ci, or Lar is a contraction for Laribus. 

No. 253. Etruscan Tana Buisinei Carcu (Hebrew 

Beth). 
Latin Thannia Yolsinia Garcia. 

I have little hesitation in reading this — the cave of 
Volsinia Carcia. 

No. 272. Etruscan Larthi Ancarnei Marinas. 

Latin Lartia Ancaria. Mariae. 

I believe we must divide Larthi thus, Lar. Thi., and read 
Laribus Theois Ancharias (et) Mariee. That Iota is equiva- 
lent to and exchangeable with Epsilon, see torn. i. p. 250. ; 
nor can there be any doubt about using Lar in the sense of 



FUNEREAL INSCRIPTIONS. 205 

Manes. Laribus Theois is as nearly as possible synonymous 
with Dis Manibus, the usual commencement of a Roman 
funereal inscription. If any one should object that Lar is 
Latin, and Theos Greek, my reply is, that if the language 
of the Romans was formed, as we are assured by the best 
authorities it was, from .ZEolic Greek, there must have been 
a period of transition, when the two languages were mixed, 
and that this inscription represents such a period. Ancharius 
was by no means an uncommon Roman name ; and Plutarch 
mentions a senator of that name, in his Life of Marius, who 
was killed by his partizans ; and Ancharia was the name of 
the mother of Octavia, the half-sister of Augustus. 

No. 297. Etruscan Thannila Upeia Marcnisa. 

Latin Thanilla. Oppia. Marcanisia. 

If the word Tana, which occurs so often in the Etruscan 
funereal inscriptions, be the modern Italian word Tana, a 
cave, of which I have little doubt, it appears to me next to 
certain that Tanilla in the present instance should be trans- 
lated little cave, being the regular Italian diminutive Ella. 
We had some years ago a carriage called a Sulky, being 
adapted to carry only one person, and therefore the very 
reverse of a Sociable, and perhaps Oppia Marcanisia was an 
old maid, and determined that no one should " seek and 
share her narrow bed," in life or in death. 

No. 340. Etruscan Belitta (Hebrew Beth). 

Latin Velissa. 

By putting two Sigmas back to back the Romans produced 
a new character, and read double S as X. This character 
J is very doubtful in Etruscan. I believe it to be sometimes 
intended for tt; but Lanzi generally reads it as ss. The 
substitution of the former for the latter is one of the most 
striking peculiarities of the Attic dialect. 

No. 366. Etruscan At. Tite. Ath. n. 

Latin Att. Titius. Attia n. 

The final solitary letter in the Etruscan Inscription is not 
a Lambda, as it is generally read by Lanzi, but a small 



206 ETRURIA. 

Greek Nu (v\ in this instance exactly corresponding with 
the Latin, and signifying Natus. 

No. 368. Etruscan Lr. Camas Helia n. 

Latin Lars Camars Helia natus. 

Lanzi would read the third Etruscan word Helial; but 
there cannot be the slightest doubt that it is Helia n., cor- 
responding with the Latin natus. It is possible that the 
inscription intends to convey the information that the defunct 
was born at Helia, or Velia. If so. one would suppose, in 
the instances of No. 143 and No. 144. that the interred were 
born at Taormina in Sicily. 

Page 438. The Latin Lars, in this page, which does not 
correspond with the Etruscan letters, I believe to be a 
contraction for Laribus, used as synonymous with Manibus. 
In two instances, No. 386. and 389., the Etruscan has only 
L. T. or L. Th., as I believe for Laribus Theois. 

No. 438. Etruscan Tania or Thania. 

No. 441. „ „ 

These words look like the plural of Tana ; and in the first 
instance we find four and in the second three names, exactly 
as in our own churchyards, " Here lie the bodies." I suppose 
the Etruscan to be " The caves, or graves of," &c. 

No. 458. Etruscan Tular Hilar. 

Latin Ollarium Hilari. 

Though the T, in the Etruscan, is well defined, it is not 
certain that it was not originally used with the power of H, 
as I find a Roman T occurring two or three times in Lanzi's 
work in that sense. In these two or three instances the 
character used primarily, would appear to have been the 
Estrangolo, or old Syriac He (T) equivalent to the Roman 
and our own letter H, which, being at all times liable to be 
confounded with T, was eventually supplanted by it, in a 
few inscriptions. If we read Tular as Hular, the latter 
word may be a contraction of Ollarium. 



FUNEREAL INSCRIPTIONS. 207 



No. 461.1 w. T 

No. 463. J Etruscan Lu P u - 

Latin Cinerarium. 



Lanzi says from Lopas, patina, Greek ; and I can suggest 
nothing better. 

ix. The Eugubine Tables. 

In the Eugubine Tables, as given by Lanzi, there can be 
no more doubt about the Etruscan letters composing the 
following words, than about the Greek letters in the same 
number of words, in those exquisite specimens of typography 
which the Clarendon Press has been producing for many 
years past. The short extracts I have made will be found 
in Lanzi (torn. in. p. 694.), and are printed in Roman 
characters in a work which I have already mentioned, 
" Bardetti, della Lingua de' Primi Abitatori dell' Italia," at 
the 255th page. 

Line 5. Frater. 

9. Inumek : Sakre, i. e. Hymnas, k, or que Sacrse. 
10. Fratrum. 

12. Uvem, i. e. Bacchus, or the grape personified ; the 

second letter is the Hebrew Beth with the 
power of V. 

13. Kletra, i. e. Anacletra, one of the names of Ceres, 

from the circumstance of her so often re- 
peating the name of Proserpine after her 
rape by Pluto, 

" Which cost Ceres all that pain, 
To seek her through the world." Milton. 

18. Tris, occurs twice in the same line. 
22. Juve Patre, Hebrew Beth with the power of V, 
in Juve. 

It appears to me that these words are quite sufficient to 
authorize us in coming to the conclusion, that the language 
of the inscription was almost, if not altogether, Latin. I 
believe all the doubt and difficulty which these tables have 
produced, arise from the circumstance of their having been 



208 ETRURIA. FUNEREAL INSCRIPTIONS. 

renewed, or copied, perhaps more than once after the 
Etruscan or old Greek characters had become obsolete, and 
the Latin was written in those Roman letters, which have 
been adopted in most of the countries of modern Europe. 
The original inscriptions, whatever may have been their 
date, must have suffered from time, or there could have been 
no inducement to renew them ; and we cannot but suppose 
that many letters were entirely obliterated, and never re- 
stored ; many partially obliterated, mistaken, and replaced 
by others, according to the conjecture and knowledge, or 
rather ignorance, of the engraver ; and what is of still more 
consequence, that an erroneous punctuation brought letters 
together which had never before been connected, and com- 
posed words which never existed in Latin, Greek, or any 
other language. Lanzi, in more than one place, speaks of the 
extreme beauty of these inscriptions, both in Latin and 
Etruscan characters, which reduces the matter almost to a 
certainty that they were executed at a late period of the 
empire ; and if the original tables date from an early age of 
the Republic, it is morally certain that they must have been 
renewed more than once, and that every renewal would 
produce an ample harvest of mistakes. 



209 



CHAP. XVII. 

ROME. OLDEST LATIN INSCRIPTIONS. 

*' The city, which thou seest, no other deem 

Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth, 
So far renown'd, and with the spoils enrich'd 
Of nations ; there the Capitol thou seest 
Above the rest, lifting his stately head 
On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel 
Impregnable ; and there Mount Palatine 
The imperial palace ; compass huge, and high 
The structure, skill of noblest architects, 
With gilded battlements conspicuous far, 
Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires." 

Paradise Regained, book iv. 

I. Steabo remarks of the Albans, that they were originally 
the friends of the Romans. They spoke the same language. 
They were, like them, Latins by origin ; and though the two 
people formed separate states there nevertheless existed be- 
tween them a community of marriages, of religious acts as 
to the sacrifices which were made in Alba, and other civil 
rights; but war soon arose between them, and Alba was 
entirely destroyed, with the exception of the temple common 
to all the Latins, and the Albans were declared citizens of 
Rome. (Strabo, lib. v.) 

II. Mettius Suffetius is called a Dictator of Alba ; but the 
second word appears to be a title, and almost identical with 
the Hebrew Shaphat, a judge, and the Carthaginian Suffetes, 
whose office was more like that of the Roman Consuls. 
Again, in the name of Appius Claudius, the founder of the 
great Claudian family at Rome, who emigrated, or revolted 
from the Sabines, which was originally written Atta, it 
appears to be the Moeso-Gothic word Atta, father. We find 
in Arabic, or Turkish, the word Atabak, which Richardson 
interprets Lord, father ; but which I rather believe to mean 
father of the city, from Atta (Moeso-Gothic), and Bak (Cop- 
tic), city. In Suffetius and Atta we have probably a 



210 ROME. 

genuine Alban and Sabine word, unless the reader prefers 
calling the latter Trojan ; for that many of the words which 
we find in the Moeso-Gotkic Gospels of Ulphilas formerly 
constituted a part of the language spoken in Mysia, the site 
of the fabulous city of Troy, there can be no doubt whatever. 

ill. Whatever may have been the ancient languages or 
dialects of Italy, however, they are almost entirely lost to us, 
and we do and can know little respecting them, except so 
far as they were incorporated with and became a part of the 
Latin tongue, with regard to which Dionysius of Halicar- 
nassus remarks, that the language of the Romans is neither 
entirely barbarous, nor altogether Greek, but a compound of 
both, the greater part being .ZEolic, and that the only disad- 
vantage they have incurred is, that they do not pronounce all 
their vowels properly, but that all the other indications of a 
Greek origin they retain beyond any other colony (lib. i. 
c. 90.). "Lingua iEoiica," says Chisull, "inter Opicam, 
Etruscam, Umbram sepulta emersit in Romanam." (Lanzi, 
torn, i, p. 28.) 

iv. One proof of the origin of the Latin language from 
iEolic Greek may be deduced from the circumstance, that 
the early Romans, like the Dorians and ^Eolians before them, 
frequently confounded R and S. In another part of this 
work, I had occasion to adduce the celebrated decree of the 
Lacedaemonians, made against Timotheus of Miletus, as one 
of the most remarkable instances. Eustathius says, " that 
the .iEolians substituted R for S, and wrote Outor instead 
of Outos, and Ippor instead of Ippos ; " and Festus remarks 
that the Romans wrote Spusius for Spurius. I find in 
Lanzi's Collection of Etruscan Inscriptions, a Sanskrit S, 
so much like a Roman R, that the former must frequently 
have been read for the latter, and the latter for the former ; 
but, putting Sanskrit out of the question, no one can look at 
the small Greek Rho (p), and Sigma (V), without being con- 
vinced that they were very liable to be mistaken for each 
other. But letters very liable to be mistaken are mistaken, 
and when frequently mistaken form a dialect, 



OLDEST LATIN INSCRIPTIONS. 211 

v. The enormous collections of Eoman Inscriptions of 
Gruter, Graevius, and Muratori, whatever may be their value 
to the historian and the chronologist, have in too many in- 
stances tended rather to mislead than direct, to perplex than 
inform, the philologist and the antiquarian. It appears to 
be taken for granted, that we have, in every instance, the 
original inscription; and yet this is so far from being the 
case, that I believe we possess hardly any of the inscriptions 
of an early period of the Republic in a genuine state. The 
best proof that we do not, is the facility with which we read 
them ; for if they had been written in the age of which they 
bear the date, it is quite certain that they would have been 
as unintelligible to us as what are called the Etruscan in- 
scriptions, which, in a great majority of instances, are as- 
suredly nothing more than Latin, written in the early, and in 
many cases, obsolete characters of Greece, which, we are 
quite sure, were primarily those of Rome also. 

VI. I must request my readers to peruse very attentively 
the following extract from Polybius, and then ask themselves 
what is the probable age of those compositions which we have 
been accustomed to read as the Laws of the Twelve Tables ? 
Polybius is speaking of the different treaties between Rome 
and Carthage, and proceeds to say, " The first was of the 
age of Lucius Junius Brutus and Marcus Horatius, who were 
created the first Consuls after the expulsion of the Kings, and 
who consecrated the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. This 
was twenty-eight years before Xerxes invaded Greece (a. u. C. 
244-245.). I have given the sense of it with all the skill 
and accuracy of which I am master : for the language that 
was used in those times is so different from that which is 
now spoken among the Romans, that frequently the best 
interpreters, even after the closet application, are unable to 
explain it." (Hampton's Polybius, vol. i. p. 204.) Such is 
the passage from Polybius, and of his perfect competency to 
speak on such a subject, few will be disposed to doubt. He 
was not only a scholar, but a man of a vigorous and enlarged 
mind ; and his moral qualities were in no respect inferior to 

P 2 



212 ROME. 

his intellectual. Indeed so high does his character stand, 
that it is no exaggeration to say, that among all the writers 
of antiquity there is not one whose single opinion carries 
more weight, or is entitled to be received with greater con- 
fidence and respect. 

VII. I would next ask my readers, if the following extract 
from the Laws of the Twelve Tables (as exhibited by Fulvius 
Ursinus, and translated by Spelman in his Dionysius of Hali- 
carnassus), has any pretensions to be regarded as a genuine 
specimen of the Latinity of Rome (a. u. c. 299) ; that is only 
about fifty-five years later than the first treaty with Carthage, 
which we have just seen Polybius declaring was hardly in- 
telligible in his time. 

Fulvius Ursinus : 
Sei. in. ious. vocat. nei. eat. statim. encapito antestarier. 

Spelman : 
Si in jus vocat, ni eat statim, incipito antestari. 

Translation : 
If any one cites another to appear before a magistrate, and 
he does not go presently, let the other call witnesses (or, more 
literally, let him begin to call witnesses). (Spelman, vol. iv. 
p. 329.) 

Tin. Lanzi, in his Specimens of ancient Latin Inscriptions, 
in his Saggio di Lingua Etrusca, gives the following as a 
fragment of one of the laws of the kings : — " Sei Parentem. 
Puer. Verberit. Ast. Oloe. Plorasit. Puer. Diveis. Parentum. 
Sacer. Esto. Sei. Nurus. Sacra. Diveis Parentum Esto." 
(Tom. i. p. 146.) If any one credits what Polybius has 
written respecting the treaty with Carthage, can he believe 
for a moment that the above fragment gives us anything 
more than the meaning of what possibly may have been one 
of the regal laws of Rome ; but of which the Latinity, with 
the exception of the doubtful expression Oloe Plorasit, is 
obviously not anterior to the age of Lucretius (vide Facciolati, 
Lexicon, in voce Ploro). 



OLDEST LATIN INSCRIPTIONS. 213 

IX. Of the Latin inscriptions given by Lanzi, I cannot 
find one that has any pretensions to be regarded as of a re- 
mote antiquity. Putting a few palpable corruptions and 
errors of transcription out of the account, the Latinity differs 
very little from that of the perfection of the language in the 
Augustan age, which is accounted for by supposing that the 
ancient monuments of Rome required to be renewed from the 
effects of time or accident, and that as often as they were 
renewed the inscriptions they contained were modernised, so 
that, in many instances, those which pretend to be of an 
early age of the republic, were actually written at a late 
period of the empire. 



p 3 



214 



CHAP. XVIII. 

ITALY. — ANTIQUITY OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 

" Italia ! Italia ! O tu cui feo la sorte 
Dono infelice di bellezza, ond' hai 
Funesta dote d' infiniti guai, 
Che in fronte scritti per gran doglia porte ; 
Deh fossi tu men bella, o almen piii forte ! 
Onde assai phi ti paventasse, o assai 
T' amasse men, chi del tuo bello ai rai 
Par che si strugga, e pur ti sfida a morte." F'dicnja. 

" Italy ! 
Time which hath wrong'd thee with ten thousand rents 
Of thine imperial garment, shall deny 
And hath denied to every other sky 
Spirits which soar from ruin : thy decay 
Is still impregnate with divinity 
"Which gilds it with revivifying ray ; 
Such as the great of yore, Canova is to-day." 

Byron's Childe Harold, canto iv. 

I. The Abbe Lanzi, one of the most profound antiquarians 
and learned philologists of modern Italy, has some observ- 
ations on the Italian language, in his Essay on Etruria, 
which do not appear to me to have excited all the attention 
they deserve, and which are of so important and interesting 
a nature as to be well worthy of further elucidation. Speak- 
ing of the Latin language, he says, " that language was not 
extinguished by the foreign and barbarous languages spoken 
in Italy, but by a popular language, which had been natu- 
ralised in the country, and even in Rome itself, from the 
remotest antiquity, and which, having been kept out of sight 
during an age of learning, re-appeared in a period of igno- 
rance, and extending itself and gaining strength by degrees, 
degenerated or subsided into that which from its origin we 
may denominate the common or vulgar language of Italy." 
(Saggio, torn. i. p. 422.) 

II. This is to me rather a new view of the subject. Almost 
all the authors who have treated of the Italian language 



THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 215 

appear to have taken it for granted that it was formed 
altogether by gradual changes in the language of ancient 
Rome, and chiefly by neglecting the declensions of the nouns 
and the conjugations of the verbs as respected the termi- 
nations of both, and that modern Italian is merely corrupted 
or simplified Latin; but, according to Lanzi, the ancient 
language of Rome did not subside into a new language, of 
which the Divina Commedia of Dante is almost the oldest 
written specimen, but was superseded by a language common 
to all Italy, and perhaps as old as Rome itself. The lan- 
guages of Hindustan will afford an illustration. Every one 
knows that the Sanskrit is the repository of literature, science, 
poetry, and religion ; and that there is another ancient lan- 
guage, denominated Prakrit, which appears to have been 
applied to all the ordinary purposes of life. Indeed the 
signification of the word Prakrita in Sanskrit, low, common, 
vulgar, is sufficiently indicative of the nature and destination 
of the language. But if the Italian Prakrit mentioned by 
Lanzi did not originate in the corruption of a learned lan- 
guage, what was the antiquity of that Prakrit, and how far 
is it possible that Latin, the Italian Sanskrit, the language of 
literature, of the state, and of religion, may have originated 
from it by elaboration ? 

in. Lanzi proceeds to remark that the transition from the 
Latin to the general use of this ancient and vulgar language 
of Italy was gradual and insensible ; that there was a relapse 
into modes of speech which had been proscribed by learning 
and taste ; that certain plebeian words, such as Caballus for 
instance, which had been banished, returned ; that exchanges 
were made in letters of the same organ ; that there was a 
general indifference respecting the termination, and an equal 
degree of licentiousness as regarded the contraction of words ; 
and that the result of all these elements of change was the 
fabrication of an idiom much more analogous to the rustic 
ancient Latin, than to the specimens of that elegant language 
preserved in books, and by us denominated classical. (Tom. i. 
p. 422.) 

P 4 



216 ANTIQUITY OF 

iv. One of the most accomplished, in every respect, of 
our English travellers in Italy, Mr. Henry Matthews, in his 
Diary of an Invalid, — a book which is frequently in my 
hands, and which I never lay down without feelings of 
regret that his own journey of life was so short, and that he 
was so early taken from a world which he was so well fitted 
to adorn and enlighten, — has the following very striking 
observations in connexion with this subject : — " The origin of 
the Italian language has long been a subject of discussion. 
The literati of Florence are fond of tracing it up to Etruscan 
antiquity. We know that Etruria had a language of its 
own distinct from the Latin. This was the language in 
which the Sibyl was supposed to have delivered her oracles, 
and in which the augurs interpreted the mysteries of their 
profession. Livy says, e Habeo auctores, vulgo turn Eomanos 
pueros, sicut nunc Gra3cis ita Etruscis Uteris erudiri solitos.' 
This language is by some supposed to have continued to 
exist during the whole time of the Romans, as the sermo 
vulgaris, the -patois which was in common use among the 
peasantry of the country, while the Latin was confined to 
the higher classes and the capital, to the senate, the forum, 
the stage, and to literature. This opinion does not seem 
entirely destitute of probability. We have living evidence 
in our own island of the difficulty of changing the language 
of a people. In France too, till within the last half-century 
the southern provinces were almost utterly ignorant of 
French ; and even at present the lower classes of the 
peasantry never speak French, but continue to make use of 
a patois of the old Provencal language. In like manner it 
is supposed by many that pure Latin was confined to the 
capital and to high life ; while the ancient Etruscan, which 
had an additional support in being consecrated to the service 
of religion, always maintained its ground as the colloquial 
patois of the greatest part of Italy. Thus when Rome fell, 
the polished language of the capital fell with it ; but the 
patois of the common people remained, and still remains in 
an improved edition in the language of modern Italy. For 
if this be not so, we must suppose first that the Etruscan 



THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 217 

was rooted out by the Latin, and that the Latin has again 
yielded in its turn to a new tongue. But innovations in 
language are the slowest of all in working their way ; and 
if the pure Latin of the Classics had ever been the colloquial 
language of the common people, some living evidence of it 
would surely have been discovered, as we now find the 
ancient language of the Britons lingering in the fastnesses 
of Wales and Cornwall; but no information is handed down 
to us by which we can ascertain when Latin was the 
common spoken language of Italy, or at what period it 
ceased to exist." (Diary of an Invalid, 2nd edition, p. 264). 

v. I am the more impressed with these remarks, because 
they coincide with and are confirmed by lny own experience. 
In the bilingual funereal inscriptions, given in the second 
volume of Lanzi's Essay on Etruria, the word Tana is of 
very frequent occurrence. That word is not Greek : it is 
not Latin ; it is not to be found in the copious and admirable 
dictionary of the latter language by Facciolati, nor in the 
still more voluminous work of Ducange, containing the 
Latinity of the middle ages ; but we meet with it in every 
Italian dictionary, and its meaning is a cave, — a sense which 
perfectly agrees with the mode in which it is employed in 
Lanzi. There can be little more doubt about the Etruscan 
letters, even if they stood alone, than about the beautiful 
Greek characters which the Clarendon press is so well em- 
ployed in sending into the world ; and in all these instances 
they are corroborated by the Latin, although not with 
minute and scrupulous exactness. If it be admitted that 
the Etruscan Tana, or Thana, is the Italian Tana, a cave, few 
will be disposed to doubt that the Etruscan Tannila, or 
Thanilla, which occurs only once (No. 297.), is an Italian 
diminutive formed from Tana, and signifies little cave. The 
reader may call Tana, and Tanilla, Etruscan or Latin as he 
pleases, and apply to them the epithet quotidianus with 
Quintilian, or pedestris with Vegetius, or usualis with 
Sidonius, or rusticus with many other authors ; but I re- 
gard them as two of the oldest Italian words in existence, 



218 ANTIQUITY OF 

and specimens of a language which probably prevailed in 
almost every part of Italy, and was older than the Latin 
itself, whether we choose to denominate that language Etrus- 
can, or to distinguish it by any other name. (Hallam's 
Literature, vol. i. p. 27.) 

vi. Lanzi says that the Etruscans frequently omitted M 
at the end of a word, and that the same practice was common 
among the ancient Latins, and quotes as authority for the 
former the words Screhto est from the Eugubine table. 
Some forms of H and Ph, in Etruscan, are easily mistaken ; 
so that screhto may have been Screphto, or Screpto. This is 
very like the Italian scritto, which we may perhaps regard as 
a third Etruscan, or rustic Roman word ; while Lanzi's re- 
mark, if well founded, establishes the remote antiquity of the 
whole class of Italian past participles. (Tom. ii. p. 254.) 

vn. The following words from the Sanskrit will be ad- 
mitted to throw some light on Italian, perhaps on Etruscan 
etymology ; and it may turn out, after all, that we are better 
acquainted with the latter language than we gave ourselves 
credit for, like the worthy citizen in Moliere, who had been 
speaking prose all his life without knowing if. 

Sanskrit. Italian. 

Ita, gone Ito. 

Gala, to eat Gala, a feast. 

Jurni, the sun Giorno, a day. 

Naso, Italian. 

Nasus, Latin. 

ido, Italian. 

idus, Latin. 



Nasa, a nose -j 

Nida, a nest < > T . 

-vt i , f Nave, Italian. 

Kau ' aboat | Navis, Latin. 



Pat' ana, a female fiend Puttana, a strumpet. 

Palala, straw Paglia. 

{Piova, rain. 
Piove, it rains. 
Pluvia (Latin), rain. 
Prakka, to ask Prego. 

Bhrija J 

Mriti, death Morte. 

Yuvan, young Giovane. 



ir -J ^ to shine Brace, a live coal. 



THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 219 

Sanskrit. Italian. 

r> • r> • i • f Rege, Italian. 

Raj, or Raja, a king | Re!, Latin. 

Rajni, a queen Regina, Italian and Latin. 

Vaja, to go Viaggio, a journey. 

-r r . ,1 .-, f Vedova, Italian. 

Vidhava, a widow | vidua> Latin> 

Sala, a hall Sala. 

Gatau, move Gita, a going, a walking. 

Anthati, lie goes Andata, going. 

Ganiba, to go Gamba, a leg. 

Diva, shine, be splendid Dio, God. 

The Sun was the earliest god of most 

of the races of mankind. 

Raja, shine, reign Rege, a king. 

Riva, flow, move Rio, a stream. 

T . f Lava, the flowing or moving matter 

Lvai, go, move j fr0 ' m ft volcan * 

£^■1* } light, shine Luce, light. 

™- -** { lu^S; gf. 

Chada, ask, seek Chiedere. 

Yanta, couple, unite Giunta, joined. 

j" Lutta (Italian), wrestling. 
Luta, roll, tumble -! Lucta (Latin), wrestling. 

[ Lucto (Latin), I wrestle. 

Vaga, go Vagare, to ramble. 

Vagha, go Viaggiare, to travel. 

Vargha, go Varcare, to go, to pass over. 

Vancho, go Yengo, I come, from Yenire. 

Yaja, go Yiaggiare. 

Gata, gone Gita, agoing, a walking. 

Gala, throat or neck { g°^ **Jj£' 

-^ ., , f Domita, Italian. 

Damita, tamed ....-{ -p. .. ' T ,. 

[ JDomitus, Latin. 



viii. In many of the words of the preceding list, it ap- 
pears to me impossible not to be impressed with the circum- 
stance, how much more closely the Italian word corresponds 
with the Sanskrit, than the Latin does, leading to the con- 
clusion that the first was Etruscan, and borrowed directly 
from the second without passing through the medium of the 
third. For example, in Sanskrit we have Vidhava, in Italian 
Yedova, and in Latin Vidua, a widow ; in Sanskrit Nasa, in 
Italian Naso, and in Latin Nasus, a nose ; in Sanskrit Nida, 



220 ANTIQUITY OF 

in Italian Nido, and in Latin Nidus, a nest. There is another 
striking instance in a proper name, which occurs in the third 
volume of Lanzi's work, at p. 599. We there read in Etrus- 
can letters, written from right to left, AV^<lH' Erchul, or 
Erkul; in spite of which Lanzi calls the head a Mercury, 
though he informs us, in a note, that Gori regarded it as a 
medal of Herculaneum, in which there can be little doubt he 
was correct. The etymology of Hercules, one of the in- 
numerable names of the Sun, I have already said I believe to 
be Sanskrit, from Heri, lord, and Kala, or Gala, time ; that is, 
the lord of time, from measuring time by his apparent 
motion, — an etymology which is confirmed by another Sanskrit 
name of the Sun, Kalakrit, or he who makes time. What I 
particularly wish to point out is, how much more closely the 
Italian mode of writing Hercules agrees with the Etruscan, 
than either the Greek or Latin, rendering it probable that it 
is rather a continuation of the former than a contraction 
formed from either of the latter. 

1. Etruscan, Erchul, or Erkul. This may be called the 

Oriental form, as it is destitute of that termination 

which the Greeks and Romans generally added to 
Asiatic proper names. 

2. Italian, Ercole, differing from the Etruscan in little 

more than adding a final E. 

3. Greek, Eraklees, or (contracted) Erakles, by inserting 

a between the r and k, dropping the u, and adding a 
Greek termination. 

4. Latin, Hercules. The initial letter is the Phoenician 

Heth, which the Greeks were unable to write, after the 
introduction of the long vowel Eta into their alphabet. 
ix. As we think in words, it is of more importance to the 
interests of truth than is generally supposed, to call things 
by their right names, and I have a strong suspicion that those 
funereal inscriptions, which Lanzi has denominated bilingual, 
ought rather to be called biliteral ; as it is by no means clear 
to me that any single inscription in the whole number is 
given in two languages, with the exception of No. 191., but 
merely in two different sets of alphabetical characters, old 



THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 221 

Greek, or Etruscan, and the common Roman letters which 
are now used in almost every part of Europe. The era of 
the great body of Etruscan funereal inscriptions would ap- 
pear to mark a transition state, not so much of languages as 
of letters, and to be less a matter of dialects than of alpha- 
bets, when the Greek or Etruscan letters were becoming less 
and the Roman more common, but in which, as the former 
were not universally disused, nor the latter adopted, and as 
it was still perhaps regarded by some as an equal chance 
which would ultimately prevail, the repugnance to be entirely 
forgotten ascribed to the dead, and the ardent affection of 
surviving friends and relatives, suggested as a measure of 
caution the expediency of employing the two systems of 
alphabetical characters prevalent in Italy, the old Greek, or 
Etruscan, and the Roman, or modern. Hence it follows 
that it is highly probable that the great majority of the in- 
scriptions in Eteuscan Letters are in the Latin Lan- 
guage ; a fact which, if once clearly ascertained, will leave 
not the smallest doubt that we possess the power of inter- 
preting the greater part, beyond the possibility of being 
much mistaken. I begin by observing that the word of per- 
petual occurrence, which has hitherto been read Ril, is 
evidently both a contraction and a corruption. In No. 12. 
there could not remain a doubt that it formed part of a word 
of six letters, but that the three dots may indicate the place 
of the figures expressing the age. On turning to the inscrip- 
tion No. 463., I find reason to believe that Ril is not a 
genuine reading, as I discover its usual place supplied by 
Abik, or Avik, and in No. 452. I find Aibik, or Aivik, which 
appears to be the same word more at length : but unfortu- 
nately Aibik, or Aivik, is as little like any known Latin 
word as Ril, unless we can ascertain of what contractions it 
is composed. And another inscription in Lanzi (torn. i. p. 
423.), in Roman letters, leaves little doubt, in which we find 
QYIX, as a contraction for Quas vixit. The Etruscan 
character corresponding with the Roman Q has disappeared. 
A and U were exchangeable (torn. ii. p. 384.), or rather easily 
mistaken for each other, as the Phoenician Aleph appears 



222 ANTIQUITY OF 

sometimes to be written thus y, and the disappearance of the 
cross stroke converted it into Upsilon ; and Aibik, or Aivik, 
originally was Qui vik. As I find three dots, or blank spaces, 
at No. 12., I have now little hesitation in reading Viksit, 
which is merely resolving the Greek letter Xi and the 
Roman X into its elements, or single letters, as we find 
them actually existing in the oldest Greek inscriptions. 
The letter which has hitherto been read as an Etrus- 
can R, in the word Ril, is really a Phoenician B, and will be 
found as such in Lanzi's second edition of his work, at the 
end of his third volume ; and it is well known that Beth, the 
second letter of the Shemitic alphabets, has the power of V 
as well as of B. Xor is this much to be wondered at, as in 
Inscriptions Xo. 463. and No. 452., the B is a regular Hebrew 
one, and has no parallel in any known Greek form of that 
letter. The Latin portion of Xo. 452. has Vix. An. 22., 
where I suppose the Aibik of the Etruscan to have been 
Qui vik(sit) 22 ; the word for years being understood but 
not expressed. Lanzi has arranged, as a distinct class, the 
Inscriptions in which the word Leine occurs. Believing that 
by far the greater part of those in his work are merely Latin 
or Italian (rustic Latin or Etruscan), I have no hesitation 
in reading Leine as the Latin or Italian word Lene ; that 
is, Lene ! ! ! May the earth press lightly or gently on him ! ! ! 
an interpretation respecting which there can be little doubt ; 
as in Xo. 450., the first in which Leine occurs, the corre- 
sponding Latin has the letters S. T. T. L., which we are quite 
sure mean, Sit tibi terra levis. Of the letters composing the 
word Ril, which has given birth to so much conjecture and 
speculation, the first is not a Greek Rho, but a Phoenician 
or Samaritan Beth, with the power of V ; and the last not an 
Etruscan Lambda, but a Greek Kappa badly formed. 

If we had found the Inscription in a perfect state it would 
probably have been as under : — 

4, Etruscan Ch, or Roman Q. 
\j Phoenician A, with the power of U. 
| Etruscan I, forming the last letter of Qui. 



THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. 223 

q Phoenician Beth, with the power of Vau, hitherto read 
as a Greek Rho ; but the proposed reading is confirmed 
by our finding a Hebrew Beth in the words Bik and 
Aibik. 
| Etruscan I. 

> Etruscan Kappa, hitherto read as Lambda — together, 
Chui or Qui vik. (sit) as a contraction for Qui 
vixit. 

Even in those inscriptions in which the word that up to 
this time has been read as Ril appears, as well as Abik, or 
Avik, I believe the former to be a corrupt reading in conse- 
quence of the final letter having been turned topsy turvy, and 
that L (^J) usurps the place of P (l), the genuine one being, 
in Etruscan letters, 1 1 q, and in Roman R. I. P. as an ab- 
breviation for Requiescat in pace. I have seen many an 
" Elegy in a Country Churchyard," the prosody and grammar 
of which, should the English ever become a dead language, 
will furnish ample employment to the Bentleys and Porsons 
of a future age. (Vide Lanzi, torn. ii. 322.) 



224 



CHAR XIX. 

ON THE MANTCHOUX, OR EASTERN TARTARS. 

" As when a vulture on Imaus bred, 

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, 

Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, 

To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids 

On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs 

Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams ; 

But in his way lights on the barren plains 

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive 

With sails and wind their cany waggons light." 

Paradise Lost, book iii. 

I. The nature of my plan would now require me to write 
three chapters, devoted respectively to the Celtas, the Moeso- 
Goths, and the Sarmatians or Slavonians, who, with the 
Greeks and Romans, may be regarded as having given birth 
to the four great families or divisions of language at present 
existing in Europe ; but as I have done so in a work recently 
published*, and should be necessarily led into many useless 
repetitions, I shall content myself with referring such of my 
readers as feel an interest in the subject to that work, and 
proceed to make a few observations on the other great divi- 
sions of language which remain to be noticed, the Tartaric, 
the African, and the American. 

II. The history of the Mantchoux, or Eastern Tartars, has 
acquired an extraneous and adventitious importance, from its 
connexion with that of China. Almost all our knowledge of 
them is derived from the Chinese, and by a singular concur- 
rence of circumstances it appears probable that they are 
destined to make the Chinese better known in Europe, as 
all the most remarkable works of the latter people have been 
translated into Mantchou, and are thus rendered accessible 

* On the Origin and Ramifications of the English Language, 8vo, 
London, 1845, chapters 4, 5, 6. 



THE EASTERN TARTARS. 225 

to the western world, in an alphabetical instead of a real 
character. 

in. Some Chinese writers represent the Mantchoux as the 
descendants of a famous horde, distinguished by the name 
of Nieutchen, Nieutche, or Niotchere, which resided between 
the sea of Corea and the river Saghalien, and is recorded 
as having paid tribute to the Emperor Vou-vang so early as 
the year b. c. 1122 ; but this statement must be regarded as 
extremely uncertain, from the very doubtful authenticity of 
the early Chinese annals. The fact is better established 
that, in the year of the Christian era, 1115, the Nieutche 
overran and conquered all the northern provinces of China, 
and were themselves subdued by the successors of Genghis, 
in a. d. 1234. In the year a. d. 1644, the Mantchoux, or 
Eastern Tartars, completely subdued the Chinese empire, of 
which they still retain possession. They appear to have 
acted nearly the same part there, as the Saxons did in 
England when called in to defend the country against the 
Picts and Scots ; and having expelled the foreign invaders 
quietly took possession of the kingdom for themselves. (Du 
Halde, tome i. p. 466.) 

iv. Since the accession of the present dynasty to the 
throne of China, the Mantchou has been spoken at court, in 
common with the Chinese language itself. Two presidents, 
the one Tartar, and the other Chinese, preside in all the 
chief courts, and all the proceedings and decrees of the go- 
vernment are published in both languages. Still, however, 
the Mantchou tongue, though incomparably more easy of 
acquirement than the Chinese, which is the predominant one 
of the empire, was in danger of being lost, but for the steps 
taken by the Tartars to preserve it after their conquest. 

Anxious to retain their language, which they naturally 
preferred to that of the Chinese, they saw with regret that 
it was gradually declining and likely to become extinct, 
rather from the circumstance of words becoming obsolete 
and forgotten than from any mixture of the two languages, 
as they have so little in common that they absolutely refuse 

Q 



226 THE MANTCHOUX, 

to assimilate. The old Tartars were insensibly dying off, 
and their children were acquiring the new language with 
increasing facility, because their mothers and servants were 
for the most part Chinese. 

V. To remedy this inconvenience, in the reign of the first 
Tartar Emperor Chun-tchi, which extended to seventeen 
years, they began to translate the Chinese classical books, 
and to compile dictionaries of the words arranged in an 
alphabetical order ; but as the explanations and the characters 
were in Chinese, and as the language of China was unable 
to render both the sounds and the words of that of Tartary, 
this labour was productive of very little utility. The Em- 
peror Cang-hi 5 soon after his accession, was induced to form 
a tribunal composed of all those who were most distinguished 
for their knowledge of the two languages of China and 
Tartary. Some were engaged to labour on such historical 
and classical books as had not yet been translated ; others, on 
works of eloquence ; and the greater number, on the compo- 
sition of a Thesaurus of the Tartaric language. 

The last work proceeded with extraordinary diligence. 
Whenever any doubt arose, they interrogated the old men of 
the eight banners or hordes of Tartary ; and if a more pro- 
found and accurate research was requisite, they consulted 
those who were recently arrived from the interior of their 
own country. Rewards were offered to those who should 
succeed in discovering obsolete words and ancient forms of 
expression adapted to enrich the Thesaurus, by means of 
which they might refresh the memories of such as had for- 
gotten them, and store the minds of those who had never 
known them. These translations and literary works, says a 
very competent judge (Le Pere Amyot), were made by- 
learned academies, by the command and under the inspection 
of the different emperors from Chun-tche to Kien-long now 
actually on the throne, and reviewed and corrected by other 
academies not less learned, the members of which were 
perfectly well acquainted both with the Chinese and the 
Mantchou languages. How immense the difference between 



OR EASTERN TARTARS. 227 

such translations and those made by foreigners ! It may be 
confidently asserted, that there is hardly a good Chinese book 
in existence, which has not been translated into Mantchou ; 
so that this latter language now presents, without any other 
assistance, the means of penetrating into the labyrinth of 
Chinese literature of all ages, containing the most ancient 
written documents in existence. (Langles, Alphabet Man- 
tchou. Paris 1807.) 

When the collection of these Tartaric words appeared to 
be so complete as to leave only a very trifling deficiency, 
which might easily be added in a supplement, they were 
divided into classes. The first treats of heaven ; the second, 
of time; the third, of the earth; the fourth, of the emperor, of 
the government, of the mandarins, of customs, of music, of 
books, of war, of hunting, of man, of soils, of silks, of cloths, 
of dresses, of instruments, of work, of workmen, of barks, of 
eating and drinking, of grain and plants, of buds, of animals 
both tame and wild, of fishes, of worms, and of an infinite va- 
riety of other subjects. Each of these classes is divided into 
different chapters and articles ; and all the words being thus 
arranged and written in conspicuous characters, the defi- 
nition, the explanation, and the use of the word are arranged 
under each in smaller letters. The explanations are at once 
clear, elegant, and familiar, and may be regarded as consti- 
tuting the best model for style. 

vi. One of the peculiarities of the Tartaric language, 
according to Du Halde, is that the same verb can never be 
employed with different substantives, but varies with, and 
is modified by those substantives in a manner which it is 
much easier to remark than to account for. He takes as an 
example the French verb Faire (to make or do), and observes 
that in that language there is no objection to the expressions 
to make a house, a picture, a statue, or verses, to do a work, 
to act a character, to assume the modest, &c. ; but that they 
exhibit a violation of the laws of Tartaric taste which could 
not be borne with. The use of the same verb may be par- 
doned in familiar conversation ; but is never tolerated in 

Q 2 



228 THE MANTCHOUX, 

elegant composition, or even in common writing. They are 
not less offended with the recurrence of the same word in the 
course of two or three lines. 

VII. Another singularity of the Tartaric is the immense 
accumulation of terms subservient to the purpose of abridg- 
ment. This language has no need of the periphrases and 
circumlocutions which retard the progress and suspend the 
meaning of discourse, and short terms clearly express that 
sense which, without their assistance, would require a host 
of words. This fact becomes obvious when it is necessary 
to speak of any description of animals, of a dog for instance. 
Besides the common terms of great and little, mastiffs, grey- 
hounds, &c. the Tartars have appropriate epithets to distin- 
guish their age, their hair, and their qualities good or bad, 
as in the following examples. If they wish to express that 
a dog has the hair of his ears and tail very long and thick, 
the word Taiha suffices ; if to say that his snout is long and 
thick, his tail the same, his ears large, and his lips drooping, 
all these particulars are conveyed by the single word Yolo. 
If this dog engenders with a common bitch, which has none 
of these qualities, the name of their whelp is Peseri. If any 
dog whatever, either male or female, has two tufts of white 
or yellow hair above its eyebrows, the circumstance is de- 
noted by the word Tourbe ; if he is spotted like a leopard, 
by Couri ; if his muzzle only is marked, while the remainder 
of his body is of an uniform colour, by Palta ; if his neck is 
quite white, by Tchacou ; if he has some hairs on the top of 
his head inclining backwards, it is Kalia ; if the iris of one 
eye is half white and half blue, it is Tchikeri ; if his form is 
low, his legs short, his body thick, and his head high, it is 
Capari ; and so on, in many more instances which it would be 
too tedious to mention. 

vni. In whatever direction we look, and whatever tongue 
we analyse, whether the people speaking it be rude or re- 
fined, illiterate or learned, we discover that language is not 
merely the instrument but the image of thought, and that 
those trains of ideas which are of the most familiar and fre- 



OR EASTERN TARTARS. 229 

quent recurrence, have given birth to forms of expression 
which answer the purpose of delineating their finest shades 
and discriminating their minutest differences. The Arabs, 
for instance, are a nation of shepherds ; and if all the words 
employed to describe the qualities of the camel literally, and 
all the figures of which that useful animal forms the basis 
metaphorically, were extracted from the Arabic Dictionary, 
they would form a small duodecimo volume. The Tartars, 
as a people, are one degree of civilisation lower than the 
Arabs, many of their tribes being merely hunters, and we 
have seen the number of terms they employ to describe dogs ; 
while Du Halde says that they have at least twenty times as 
many applicable to horses. We denominate them barbarous, 
and in many respects no doubt they are so as compared with 
the inhabitants of Europe ; but respecting dogs and horses, 
with which their minds are most habitually conversant, they 
appear to make more refined distinctions than we do. We may 
describe their language as narrow ; but with regard to those 
classes of objects which minister most effectually to their 
wants and desires, it exhibits a degree of copiousness, of 
which, prior to examination, we could have formed no concep- 
tion whatever. But if language be in every instance adapted 
to the actual situation of the people speaking it, it forms no 
slight presumption that language itself is a human invention, 
and that man, being supplied by his benevolent Creator with 
a mind to think and a capacity of forming articulate sounds 
to express his thoughts, did the rest himself, and no more 
required supernatural assistance to build up the fabric of 
speech, than to erect the rude hut which covered him, after 
being provided with hands to arrange, and wood and stone 
for materials. 

ix. I have made a list of a few Tartaric words, in »o- 
ing through Langles' Alphabet Mantchou, which will be 
found below ; as, though they do not suggest many analogies 
to me, they may to others ; and there can be no doubt as to 
their authenticity, or their orthography, at least so far as Tar- 
taric sounds can be adequately rendered by an European 

Q 3 



230 THE MANTCHOTJX, 

alphabet. I must remark, however, that the difficulties of 
Mantchou writing have been prodigiously exaggerated ; or, to 
speak more correctly, have no sort of foundation in fact. 
The language is commonly said to consist of fourteen 
hundred syllables, which one is led to suppose must all be 
committed to memory ; while the real truth is, that these 
pretended elements have all been analysed by Langles, into 
an alphabet consisting of twenty-eight characters or letters. 



Tartaric Words. Analogies. 



Enie, mother 



{ 



Am, Hebrew. 
Arum, Arabic. 



Itclie, or Itcheu, new. 

Oren, or Ouren, image. 

Sain, or Sagnin, good, beautiful. 

Poo, house. 

Antcha, plough. 

Erguen, life, breath, soul. 

ISTiyaman, heart. 

Ounoun, burden Onus, Latin. 

Panin, or Pagnin, character, disposi- 
tion. 
Pira, river. 

Q -,.-,. ,. f Sabe (Coptic) knowing. 

Sabi, prediction [ Savio (Italian), wise, learned. 

Sabou, a shoe Sabot, French, 

Sanguis, Latin. 
Sengui, blood -I Sangue, Italian. 



r so 

\ Sa 
[ Sa 



Sang, French. 
Yaza, eye. 
Tatan, tent. 
Totolo, prognostic. 

Tata, origin, source Tete, head, French. 

Tetoun, bier. 
Pitkhe, book. 
Petkke, the feet. 

Oleut or Eleuth, name of the king- "1 Ohel, Hebrew, a tent, Hiat, Arabic, 
domoftheMongoux,orMonguls. J life, (by contraction) Oleuts or 

Eleuths, i. e. a people passing their lives in tents, like the Arabs 

and Tartars. 
Leolen, discourse Laleo (Greek), to speak. 

Mama o T <mdmother i Maha (Sanskrit), great. 

Mama, grandmother j Maa (g^]^ motner , 

Mouke, water Moui, Coptic. 

Tchatchouii, thick forest. 
Tc'lictchc, father. 
Kesike, cat. 



Oil EASTERN TARTARS. 231 

Tartaric Words. Analogies. 

Kegue, eldest sister. 

Kerguen, grasshopper. 

Fekhi, the brain. 

Kan, steel. 

-r, ,. f Fan-Maeso (Gothic), Lord. 

Fon ' time jPhaino (Greek), to shine. 

Almost all the earliest names of 
Deity were either names of the sun, or of time which was 
measured by the sun's motion Cala (Sanskrit), time, a name of 
Siva. Chronos (Greek), time, a name of Saturn. 

Founiekhe, hair. 

Ouargui, the west. 

Ouekhe, stone. 

Oueikhe, teeth. 

Topikhi, a fox's skin. 

Poulekou, mirror. 

Koutchou, friend. 

Pousa, an idol Also Chinese. 

Kisoun, word, speech, tongue. 

Kirangui, bone. 

Kouroun, kingdom „ Corona (Latin), a crown. 



Q 4 



232 



CHAP. XX. 



ON THE MONGOLS, OR WESTERN TARTARS. TURKISH LANGUAGE 

AND GRAMMAR. 



As when the Tartar from his Russian foe, 

By Astracan, over the snowy plains 

Retires, or Bactrian Sophi from the horns 

Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond 

The realm of Aladule, in his retreat 

To Tauris or Casbeen." Paradise Lost, book x. 



I. The highest authorities on this subject appear to be 
pretty generally agreed that the oldest dialect of the Turco- 
Tartaric is the Ouigour ; but the most ancient manuscripts in 
existence are probably not anterior to the twelfth century. 
Of the Ouigour manuscripts, known to exist in Europe at 
present, the Bodleian may boast of the possession of one; 
the Bibliotheque du Roi contains two; and a third was sent 
from Vienna to Paris, about the year 1823, by the learned 
Orientalist Yon Hammer. All appear to have been written 
about the middle of the fifteenth century. (David, Preli- 
minary Dissertation to Turkish Grammar.) 

11. The Ouigour, says David, though superior in simplicity 
to the Osmanli, is however much inferior in beauty and exacti- 
tude of expression. The Verb in the Ouigour is not subjected 
to that mechanism which renders the nicety of expression so 
great in the dialect of Constantinople. The Affirmative, the 
Active, the Passive, and the Negative, appear to be the 
only forms of the verb known to the Ouigours. They are 
strangers to the composition of the Impossible, Reciprocal, 
Causal, and Personal verbs, formed by the insertion of a 
letter or a particle between the radical and its termination, 
which constitutes so material a feature in the Osmanli. The 
Imperative is the root from which the simple tenses are 
formed, the compound are unknown, and the only tenses an 



THE WESTERN TARTARS. 233 

Ouigour verb appears to be susceptible cf, are the Present 
and the Preterite. The Verb Substantive, in the Ouigour, 
is not an auxiliary ; it is always employed alone, and is 
never found performing those important offices which have 
been assigned to it by the Osmanlis. The Infinitive is 
terminated by Mak, the rejection of which gives the Impe- 
rative. The Preterite is formed by adding to the Imperative 
the particle Dim, answering to the Preterite in Dum of the 
Osmanli ; and the mode of forming the Persons of the verb 
is the same as in that dialect. The particles in Ur and 
Mish, and the Gerunds in Ken, lb, and Ub, are also fre- 
quently employed. The Numerals offer a strong proof of 
the Ouigour being the primitive dialect, by giving the 
etymology of the numeral adjectives at present employed by 
the Osmanlis, the origin of which is undiscoverable in their 
own language. Thus in the Turkish of Constantinople, as 
in Ouigour, Sekiz is eight, and On, ten ; but eighty is in the 
former Seksen, while in the latter it is Sekison, literally, 
eight ten. The same occurs in the subsequent numbers; 
the Ouigour shewing the derivation, which elision has 
rendered undiscoverable in the Osmanli. In the dialect of 
the Osmanlis, the conjugation is executed throughout by the 
aid of the Yerb Substantive and the Defective Verb (Aim) 
Im which correspond exactly to- our ideas of Auxiliaries. 
Each of the Tenses is formed by uniting to the verb, either in 
its imperative state or in the form of a participle, the Tenses of 
the Auxiliaries. Kilurum, I do ; Kilur idum, Kilur imishem, 
I did ; Kildum, Kilmish oldum, I have done ; are all formed 
in this manner ; and are, when analysed, Kilur, doing, Im, I 
am ; Kilur, doing, Idum, I was. This fact produces a singular 
anomaly in comparing the Ouigour to the Osmanli. The 
Ouigour inflexion, with regard to the simple tenses which 
it employs, is executed exactly in the same manner as that 
of the Osmanli, which even appears more distinctly on account 
of elision being less used. Kilurim is, in Ouigour, I do, or 
(literally) doing I am ; Kildim, I have done, to do I have been. 
The singularity of this formation of tenses consists in the 
verb which is used as an auxiliary to produce it, not existing 



234 THE MONGOLS, 

in the language in which it is employed. The Verb 
Substantive Aim of the Osmanlis, is an utter stranger to 
the language of the Ouigours, and yet it is thus found 
entering into the most intimate part of their idiom. (David, 
Prel. Dissert, p. 29.) 

in. Every peculiarity of the Tartaric languages is worthy 
of remark, as they have been so little examined hitherto 
and we are so imperfectly acquainted with them ; and still 
more, every analogy they offer with the two great classes of 
languages which appear to have such strong claims to be 
regarded as the descendants of the Sanskrit and the Arabic. 
The two tenses of the Ouigour, the Present and the Preterite, 
assimilate it to the Shemitic languages ; while the formative 
of the Preterite Dim, and the Osmanli Dum, appear to be 
contractions of the Persic Preterite Boclm, I was, of the 
Defective Hastan to be ; and the formative of the Present 
in both languages, at least in the first person Im, is still 
more clearly the Persic Am, which is cognate with the 
Slavonic Jesmi, the Sanskrit As mi, and the Greek Eimi. 

IV. The dialects of the Turco-Tartaric may be described 
as the Ouigour, the Jaghataian, the Kaptchak, the Kirghiz, 
the Turcoman, the Caucaso-Danubian, the Austro- Siberian, 
the Yakouti, the Tchouvake, and the Osmanli ; and upon the 
last of the ten I shall now proceed to make a few more 
observations. 

v. The Turks, properly speaking, have no Article; its 
place, however, is supplied by the Demonstrative Pronoun, 
Bu, and the Numeral Adjective, Bir, which answer to our 
Definite and Indifinite Articles ; as, Bu Adem, the man ; Bu 
Auret, the woman ; Bir Eeis, a head. The Indefinite Article 
is also sometimes expressed after the Persian manner by the 
addition of the letter I final, as Bulbuli, a nightingale. 

Turkish Nouns have six Cases corresponding with the 
Latin ; the Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Voca- 
tive, and Ablative : and two Declensions ; the first consisting 
of such words as terminate in a Consonant ; and the second, 
of those which end in a Vowel. 



OR WESTERN TARTARS. 235 

The Turkish Adjectives, like the English and Persic, are 
not varied on account of Gender, Number, or Case; and 
undergo no change, except in the formation of the degrees of 
comparison, which is effected by Prefixes and Affixes. 

The Turkish Verbs are of eight kinds ; Auxiliary, Active, 
Passive, Negative, Impossible, Causal, Reciprocal, and Per- 
sonal. There are six Modes, which may be denominated, 
Indicative, Imperative, Optative, Suppositive, Subjunctive, 
and Infinitive. The Tenses are five, answering to our Pre- 
sent, Imperfect, Preterite, Preterpluperfect, and Future . 
and the Numbers, a Singular and a Plural, without any 
Dual. 

vi. The etymologies suggested to me by the Turkish, will 
not occupy a very large space, from the slight degree of 
attention I have been able to devote to the language. The 
word Ev, a house, appears to be the origin of our eaves, 
which is restricted to denote part of the roof of a house. Er, 
a man, appears to be cognate with the Armenian Air, and 
probably with the Scythic Oior, mentioned by Herodotus ; 
which last word, again, by the addition of Digamma assimi- 
lates itself with the Sanskrit Virah, the Celtic Fear, and the 
Latin Vir. The Turkish Pronoun Ao, pronounced O, he, 
she, it, seems to be perfectly identical with the same word 
in Persic, and related to the Hebrew and Arabic Hou, he. 
The Ouigour Men, I, is identical with the Persic Men, and 
both with the Turkish Ben, it being a peculiarity of the 
latter language in many instances to confound these two 
letters. The Turkish Biz, we, seems to be related to the 
Latin Bis, twice. 

vii. It has been already remarked that there are no 
Auxiliary Verbs to form compound tenses in Ouigour. 
The Verb Substantive is Dur, and in Arabic we find the 
same word denoting a circle, an age, the world, and probably 
existence, or time in general. There can be no doubt that 
our English words Dure and Endure are branches from the 
same stock. 

The Turkish Idum (Aiclm), I was, appears to be the 



236 THE MONGOLS, OR WESTERN TARTARS. 

Arabic root Aid, existence, a Noun Substantive, with the 
Possessive affix M. In the Turkish Eger Iseh, if he be, 
the Verb seems to be cognate with the Hebrew Yaish, there 
is, there are ; and the Turkish word Ken, being, with the 
Arabic Kan, he was. In the word Komak, to put, place, 
the first syllable appears to be the Turkish and Persic Gah, 
place, with the Turkish termination of the Infinitive Mak, 
which is here almost identical with our English verb Make. 
Komak, to place, i. e. to make place. Almak, to receive, 
take, is formed from the Turkish Al the hand, and Mak, 
termination of the Infinitive. The Turkish Ai, the moon,, is 
cognate with the Chinese Yue, and the Coptic Ioh, and all 
perhaps with the Arabic Ay a, light, brightness ; and there 
probably was a period in the infancy of the human race, 
when all these words were used by one people, anterior to 
the diffusion of mankind over the surface of the earth, to 
form families and nations and found kingdoms and empires. 

On the whole, I find so much in common between the 
Turkish, the Arabic, and the Persic, as to induce me to 
doubt the soundness of that arrangement of Sir William 
Jones in his Discourses, which regards the Tartaric as a 
distinct family of languages. He himself says, " The best 
lexicographers assert that numberless words, in ancient Per- 
sian, are taken from the language of the Cimmerians, or 
the Tartars of Kipchak. 



237 



CHAP. XXL 

ARMENIA. — LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 



" The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground, 
Fast on the top of some high mountain fix'd. 
And now the tops of hills, as rocks, appear ; 
With clamour thence the rapid currents drive, 
Towards the retreating sea, their furious tide." 

Paradise Lost, book xi. 



I. Were we to attempt to form any conception of the lan- 
guage of Armenia from the early traditions respecting that 
country, nothing could be more contradictory than the con- 
clusions at which we should arrive. As the most venerable 
of all histories, the Book of Genesis, informs us that, after 
the assuaging of the waters of the deluge, the ark rested on 
the mountains of Ararat, we should expect to find in Armenia 
traces of the Antediluvian language spoken by the patriarchs, 
whatever that language may have been. We are told by 
Herodotus that Armenia was peopled by a colony of 
Phrygians; and by Strabo, that Armenus, a Thessalian, one 
of the companions of Jason in his Argonautic expedition, 
supplied the country at once with a name and inhabitants. 
Tacitus enumerates Armenia amongst the countries which 
were not merely overrun, but completely subdued by the 
Egyptian Rameses. Moses of Chorene assures us, that a 
Chinese colony established itself in Armenia, at a very early 
period; and, finally, from the same country the Saxon 
Chronicle brings the earliest inhabitants of England. 

II. Sir William Jones says : " Of the Armenian, which I have 
never studied, because I could not hear of any original com- 
position in it, I can offer nothing decisive ; but am convinced, 
from the best information procurable in Bengal, that its basis 
was ancient Persian, of the same Indian stock with the Zend, 
and that it has been gradually changed since the time when 



238 ARMENIA. 

Armenia ceased to be a province of Iran. The letters in 
which it now appears, are allowed to be comparatively modern ; 
and, though the learned editor of the tract by Carpanius on 
the Literature of Ava, compares them with the Pali characters, 
yet, if they be not, as I rather conjecture, derived from the 
Pahlavi, they are perhaps an invention of some learned 
Armenian in the middle of the fifth century." (vol. iii. p. 178.) 
" The languages referred to the Caucasian order," says the 
able author of the article Languages, in the Supplement to 
the Encyclopedia Britannica, " have little to distinguish 
them from the rest of the class, except their geographical 
situation, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Caucasian 
mountains. They have a general resemblance to some others 
of the languages of Northern Asia, and particularly to the 
Samojedic dialects spoken on the mountains between Siberia 
and the Mongols. Except the Armenian and Georgian, they 
are scarcely ever employed in writing ; and principally perhaps 
from this cause, they exhibit as great a diversity in the space 
of a few square miles, as those of many other nations do in 
as many thousands. It is only conjectured that most of the 
inhabitants of these countries, are derived from the miscel- 
laneous fragments of expeditions of various nations left behind 
in their passage through them at different periods. The con- 
nection of the Armenian with the Sanskrit and the Persic, is 
just enough to make it equally probable that the coincidences 
may have been derived from a common . parent, or that one 
language may have simply borrowed detached words from the 
other. We find, in Mr. Townsend's work, about ten Armenian 
words resembling some other language, which are 

Armenian Words. Analogies, 

Air, a man Air, Irish. 

Atamn, a tooth Odonta, Greek. 

Chuerk, four Chatur, Sanskrit. 

Dor, a door. 

E, is Est, Latin. 

Es, I laze, Russian. 

Gas, a goose Gans, German. 

Houze, a house. 

Lakeil, to lick Leichein, Greek. 

Sert, the heart. 



ARMENIA. 239 

" Nothing is known of the history of the Armenian before 
the time of Miesrob, who translated the Bible into it A. D. 
405 ; the historian, Moses of Chorene, was his pupil. The 
language nourished till the year 800, and is still preserved in 
tolerable purity in the cloisters." 

in. Thus far the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica ; and for the very slight knowledge I possess of the 
Armenian I am indebted to Galano's Grammar of that lan- 
guage, published in quarto at Rome, in 1645, from which I 
shall now proceed to make a few extracts with occasional 
observations. 

The author commences by dividing his Grammar into four 
parts — Orthography, Poetics, Prolation, and Syntax; and 
then proceeds to inform us, that the ancient grammarians 
reckoned only thirty-six letters in the Armenian language, 
but that the modern have extended their number to thirty- 
eight, by the addition of O and F, because the ancients wrote 
Au for O, and Pp instead of F. 

It is very true that the Armenian Alphabet contains 
thirty-eight characters, or, reckoning the three forms of each, 
one hundred and fourteen ; but of these thirty- eight, sixteen 
are double letters, or merely contractions in writing ; and of 
the remaining twenty-two, four are employed to denote E 
and I long and short, and B and Y are distinct letters. In 
all alphabets C soft may be supplied by S ; C hard, by K ; 
while the sounds of F and P, and D and T, are hardly dis- 
tinguishable, and consequently one of these letters may be 
dispensed with. If we deduct 

B, supplied by Y, 



c, 


55 


K (hard), 


c, 


55 


S (soft), 


D, 


» 


T, 


E, 


55 


I, 


F, 


55 


P, 



we shall find no more than fifteen or sixteen genuine letters, or 
signs of simple or elementary sounds; the double letters being 
merely contractions in writing, and many of the single ones 



240 ARMENIA. 

different modes of expressing the same elementary or simple 
sound. The ancient Greeks are related to have had but six- 
teen letters ; and yet no people appear to have possessed more 
musical ears, or to have cultivated their language with more 
attention. 

There are four kinds of Points, denoting Accent, Breathing, 
Time, and Apostrophe. The accents are three : Acute ', 
Grave \ and Circumflex ". There are two Breathings : the 
Rough c and the Smooth T . The Times are Duplex — the 
Short " and the Long~; and also the Apostrophe — the Infe- 
rior, and the Superior. 

iv. The Armenian has three Genders — Masculine, Femi- 
nine, and Neuter ; and two Numbers — Singular and Plural. 
All Adjectives, however, with a single exception, having a 
particular termination and the feminine gender, are of the 
Common Gender, as in Persic, Turkish, and English. 

It has ten Cases : 1. the Nominative; 2. the Genitive; 3. 
the Dative; 4. the Accusative; 5. the Vocative; 6. the 
Ablative ; 7. the Instrumental ; 8. the Narrative ; 9. the 
Commemorative; 10. the Circumlative. In the number of 
its cases the Armenian appears to be the most complex lan- 
guage in existence. The Sclavonic has seven, and the Sanskrit 
eight cases. 

The marks of Case are twofold — Prepositive and Post- 
positive ; the first being used when no change takes place in 
the termination of a word. 

A Verb, according to Galano, is a declinable part of speech, 
possessing time without case, and signifying Action and 
Passion. The Accidents of Verbs are eight — Kind, Tense, 
Mode, Species, Figure, Person, Number, and Conjugation. 
The kinds of Verbs are six — Active, Passive, Neuter, 
Common, Deponent, and Transitive. That is an Active 
Verb which terminates in Iem, or Uoum, and which, by 
changing its termination into Im, becomes a Passive. And, 
on the contrary, a Passive Verb terminates in Im; by 
changing which into Iem, or Uoum, it is converted into an 
Active. 



ARMENIA. 24 1 

The Armenian, like most other languages, furnishes reasons 
for believing that Verbs, and indeed all the other parts of 
speech are formed from, and were originally in the very 
infancy of society, and at a period long anterior to writing, 
simply Nouns. In the Hebrew, perhaps the rudest of all 
written languages, the Verbs are clearly a Noun with a 
pronominal termination, which termination was itself 
originally a Noun also. In Armenian we have the Noun 
Substantive, or Root, Ser, love, which, combined with the 
Verb Iem, I am, makes Ser-Iem, I love, or am loving. 

The Tenses are five : the Present, the Preter-Imperfect, 
the Preter-Perfect, the Preter- Pluperfect, and the Future. 
The Modes are also five : the Indicative, the Imperative, the 
Optative, the Subjunctive, and the Infinitive. The Arme- 
nian Verb has also five Conjugations. 

v. The following are some of the most remarkable words 
I have noted, together with the analogies with other 
languages which they have suggested to me : — 

Armenian Words. Analogies. 

Chettadz, Misericors. 
Amb, Nubes. 
Andarr, Sylva. 
Embiel, Bibere. 
Sychiesd, Vestis. 
Szhiszpn, Initiuru. 

Arrachieal, Apostolus Rasoul, Arabic. 

Archaiuoutte, Regnum Arche, Greek. 

Asduouadz, Deus. 
Eua, Eve. 
Huovin, Pastor. 
Ser, Amor. 
Ariun, Sanguis. 
Ghuois, Virgo. 

Luois Lux, Latin. 

Tuourr Door, English. 

Liearr, Mons ( J** (Sanskrit), Terra. 

I Lurre (.Basque), Terra. 

Air : Vir {I?™. 

Hair, Pater. 

Cchuoir Soror, Latin. 

R 



242 ARMENIA. 

Armenian Words* Analogies. 

Mair, Mater Mere, French. 

Mart, Homo Mard, Persic. 

Na, Ule Nar (Persic), male, masculine. 

Asdgh, Stella. 

Arehaghan, Sol. 

Tuousdr, Filia Daughter, English. 

Huochin Diearrn, Spiritus Dei Rooch (Hebrew), Spiritus. 

Marmin, Corpus. 

m> t\ f Dieu, French. 

Tieu, Demon | Div, Persic. 

Siun, Columna Situn, Persic. 

Ain, Hie. 

Mi, Unus Mia (Greek), Una. 

Jerghuou, Duo. 
Jeriech, Tres. 

Vart, Rosa Ward, Arabic. 

Mah, Mors Mawt, Arabic. 

Hhuoi, Aries. 

Mard KpIIutti T Marte ( Latln )> AbL of Mars. 

Mard, Helium | Marte, Italian., 

Hazz, Panis Kabbaz, Arabic. 

Zierr, Manus Cheir, Greek. 

Zett, Oleum Zit (Hebrew), an olive. 

xr Twr • f Nau, Sanskrit. 

Nau,Navis | Naus, Greek. 

Ghin, Mulier Gune, Greek. 

Pan, Verbum. 

Archal, Rex Arche (Greek), Regnum. 

Ierghir, Terra. 
Ierghin, Coelum. 
Ouird, Cor. 

Dzamanagh, Tempus Zaman, Arabic. 

Dzam, Hora. 
Uosghi, Aurum. 

Chini, Vinum Yayin, Hebrew. 

Dzuov, Mare. 
Der, Dominus. 

Or, Dies Aor (Hebrew), light. 

Ies, Ego. 

T f Tu, Latin. 

" Lm)U 1 Thou, English. 

Ail Alius, Latin. 

Uor, Qui, Quae, Quod. 

f Aish (Hebrew), a man. 
Ais, hie J Is, Latin. 

[ Os, Greek. 
Siriem, Amo. 
Sirim, Amor. 



ARMENIA. 243 

Armenian Words. Analogies. 

Cham, Yenio I come, English. 

Iem, Sum Eimi, Greek. 

Ies, Es Eis, Greek. 

E, Est Esti, Greek. 

Amanagh, Tempus With the Arabic definite article 

Al, Alamanagh ; by contraction, Almanack (English), the Time, 

i. e. an account of time. 



r 2 



244 



CHAP. XXII. 

AFRICA IN GENERAL. 

" Th' empire of Negus to his utmost port 
Ercoco, and the less maritim kings 
Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind, 
And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm 
Of Congo, and Angola farthest south ; 
Or thence from Niger flood to Atlas Mount 
The kingdoms of Almansor, Fez, and Sus, 
Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen." 

Paradise Lost, book xi. 

I. The ancients were much divided in their opinions 
respecting the geographical boundaries of Africa ; for while 
some regarded the whole of Egypt as forming part of the 
continent of Asia, others were disposed to include it in 
Africa; and others again, among whom may be placed 
Herodotus, considered the Nile as forming the boundary line 
between the two great continents. 

ii. Putting Egypt and Ethiopia, which have already been 
treated of, out of the question, as well as Carthage and 
Cyrene, which were unquestionably colonies founded by 
nations who had made considerable progress in civilisation, 
we hardly meet with an ancient author who is disposed even 
to speculate on the subject of the original inhabitants of 
Africa, and much less with one who possesses either in- 
clination or ability to impart to us any definite information. 
In a Roman author, who is much more remarkable for the 
beauties of his style than the closeness of his investigations, 
or the general accuracy of his narrative, the historian Sallust, 
we meet with the following observations : — He represents 
Africa as originally possessed by the Gastulians and Libyans, 
both of whom he describes as savage and unpolished people, 
living on the flesh of wild beasts, or feeding on the herbs of 
the field like cattle ; subject to no laws, discipline, or govern- 
ment ; without any fixed habitation ; wandering from place 



AFRICA IN GENERAL. 245 

to place, and taking up their abode wherever night overtook 
them. The death of Hercules in Spain, however, according 
to the tradition of the Africans, led in a short time to the 
dispersion of his army, which was composed of a great 
variety of nations, and influenced by commanders who were 
actuated by discordant views and conflicting interests. Those 
that were Medes, Persians, and Armenians, sailed over into 
Africa, and took possession of that part of the country on 
the coast of the Mediterranean sea. The Persians, however, 
ultimately settled nearer the Atlantic, and converted their 
ships into houses, by turning them upside down, because there 
was no timber in the country, and they had no intercourse 
with Spain, partly on account of the distance, and partly 
because they did not understand the language spoken in that 
country. These insensibly mixed with the Gsetulians by 
intermarriages ; and because they were continually shifting 
from place to place, trying the goodness of the soil, they 
called themselves Numidians, which Sallust evidently regards 
as equivalent to Nomades. He concludes by remarking, that 
the houses of the Numidian peasants, were still like the hulls 
of ships, of an oblong form, with coverings raised in the 
middle, and bending at each end. (Be Bello Jugurthino, 
c. 21.) 

Y in. The expedition of Hercules into Spain, the foundation 
on which the above passage rests, cannot be said to possess 
much of an historical character. As the Grecian Hercules is 
altogether a creation of mythology, so his exploits are in every 
respect fabulous. Hercules is unquestionably one among the 
innumerable Asiatic names of the sun ; and his twelve labours 
contain some obscure allusion to the passage of that luminary 
through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. At the same time, 
the above passage of Sallust, in all probability, darkly em- 
bodies the historical fact of an emigration from Asia, or an 
invasion of Europe from that continent. Hercules, or the 
sun, being put by metonymy for the East, or the sun-rising, 
in the same way as Cadmus, formed from the Hebrew word 
Kedem ; and hence in the classical writers Heraclidas and 

^ R 3 



246 AFKICA IN GENERAL. 

Cadmeans for Asiatics or Orientals. Indeed we actually meet 
with such a tradition in history, or that which has hitherto 
been received as such ; as Megasthenes mentions Sesostris the 
Egyptian, and Tearchon the Ethiopian, as extending their 
conquests as far as Europe, Navocodrosorus (Nebuchadnezzar), 
the most renowned among the Chaldeans as exceeding Her- 
cules, and carrying his arms as far as the pillars, and subse- 
quently leading his army from Spain to Thrace and Pontus, 
while Idanthursus, the Scythian, overran all Asia as far as 
Egypt. (Megasthenes, Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 215.) 

IY. If this army, which Sallust describes as crossing from 
Spain into Africa, was really composed of Medes, Persians, 
and Armenians, I should say that it had clearly left a trace 
of itself in the word Numidia, formed from the Persic Nu 
or No, new, and Media their original country. The name 
of the Gaetulians, whom Sallust describes as the original 
inhabitants of Africa, seems to be formed from the Greek 
word Ge earth, and the Latin verb Fero, tuli, in the sense of 
to produce ; Gaetulians, or earth born, corresponding with the 
Greek Autochthones, and the Latin Aborigines. Herodotus 
describes the Ausenses as bordering on those Libyans who 
cultivated the earth and had houses, were distinguished by 
the name of Maxyes, and pretended to be descended from 
the Trojans. (Lib. iv. c. 191.) Connecting this with the 
passage in Sallust, one cannot but conjecture that the word 
Maxyes may be cognate with the Persic Mazu and Mazah, 
a harrow, and that the fact of their being agriculturalists 
was contained in the name. The indefatigable Herodotus 
also mentions another African word, which is undoubtedly 
of Asiatic etymology. He says that Zegeries, in the African 
tongue, has the same meaning with the Greek word for 
hills, which can hardly be any thing else than the Chaldee 
Jegar, and the Syriac Jagar, a hill. In the well-known 
parting between Laban and Jacob, after they had raised a 
mound of stones, the former pronounced the words Jegar 
Sahadutha, this heap be a witness, or be this heap a witness. 
(Genesis, 31—47.) 



AFRICA IN GENERAL. 247 

The name of Mount Atlas in Mauritania, is certainly 
older than the age of Homer, as it occurs in the first book of 
the Odyssey, and it is as certainly an Arabic word. I do 
not mean a conjectural word, such as etymologists are some- 
times accused of inventing, but one which is to be found, I 
believe, in every Arabic dictionary. In that of Richardson 
its signification is a sphere, the heavens ; so that there cannot 
be a doubt that Atlas was to the early Arabians, and the 
inhabitants of that part of Africa, what Ouranos was to the 
Greeks, and Coelus to the Romans ; that is, one of the oldest 
and most venerable of their deities. 

v. The languages of Africa are supposed to amount to 
one hundred and fifty, of which Adelung has given scanty 
specimens, consisting of a word or two, of about one hundred. 
But of all these, with the exception of the subdivisions of 
the Egyptian language, the Coptic, the Sahidic, and the 
Oasitic, together % with the Punic, there are very few words 
that I can identify as having the most remote analogy with 
the languages of Europe or Asia. In connexion with this 
subject, Dr. Prichard's Work on the Eastern Origin of the 
Celtse, contains the following curious passage : — " In Africa 
a remarkable and interesting fact was the discovery of a 
nation occupying the whole northern region of that continent, 
to which the Kabyles of Mauritania and the Tuarik of the 
Great Desert belong, and whose branches extend from the 
Oasis of Siwah on the eastern, to the mountains of Atlas 
and even to the Canary Islands on the western side. The 
Guanches, the old inhabitants of those islands whose remains 
are said to lie embalmed in the mummy caves of Teneriffe, 
spoke, as it appears, a dialect of the same language as the 
Kabyles and Berbers. The Felatahs, who have spread 
themselves over the interior countries of Nigritia, have been 
traced, by a similar investigation, to the mountainous districts 
above the Senegal, where the Foulahs who speak the same 
language, have long been known to Europeans as a people 
in many respect distinguishable from the Negroes. To the 
southward of the equator, a connexion still more extended 

R 4 



248 AFRICA IN GENERAL. 

has been discovered among the natives tribes, across the 
whole of the same continent from Caffraria and the Mozam- 
bique coast on the Indian Ocean, to the countries which 
border on the Atlantic and form a part of the region termed 
the empire of Congo." (p. 7.) 

vi. Park's Travels in Africa contain a tolerably copious 
vocabulary of the Mandingo language, from which I shall 
insert a short extract, principally with a view of pointing 
out the extraordinary fact how very widely the Arabic 
appears to have been diffused over the African continent 
from the very earliest ages. 

Mandingo Words. Analogies. 

Boulla, the arm and hand Bal (Arabic and Persic), the arm. 

Kittaba, a book Kitab, Arabic. 

Ding, a child. 

Dingding, an infant In Hebrew, the superlative degree 

is frequently formed by writing the positive twice. In the 
first chapter of Genesis, we have Tob, good, and Tobtob, very- 
good. 

Banko, earth. 

Lata, glad Lsetus, Lseta, Latin. 

*".<** { ifne"- 

Santo, heaven Santo (Italian), holy. 

Soo, horse Soos, Hebrew. 

Fato, man Phos, Photos (Homer). 

Teelee kooneata, noon ; literally, the 

sun overhead. 
Sang, sky. 
Boulla ba, the south ; literally, the 

right hand. 
Teelee, the sun. 
Gee, water. 
Teelee Gee, the west ; literally, sun water, i. e. where the sun sets. 



249 



CHAP. XXIII. 

AMERICA IN GENERAL. 



" Venient annis saecula seris, 
Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum 
Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, 
Tethysque novos defcegat orbes, 
Nee sit terris ultima Thule." Seneca, Medea, 374. 

Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume, 

And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat 

Of Atabalipa, and yet unspoil'd 

Guiana, whose great eity Geryon's sons 

Call El Dorado." Paradise Lost, book ii. 



I. The above passage of Seneca appears to contain a pro- 
phecy that new continents would be discovered, and the 
boundaries of the habitable world be thereby enlarged ; but as 
most prophecies have been found to be long posterior to the 
events they pretend to predict, we ought perhaps rather to 
regard the words of my motto as containing an obscure tra- 
dition and doubtful knowledge of the existence of a western 
continent, at the period when the poet wrote. 

II. The fables respecting the Atlantic island lead us to 
the same conclusion. Marcellus, as quoted by Proculus, 
says that such, and so great an island formerly existed, is 
recorded by some of the historians, who have treated of the 
concerns of the outward sea (the Atlantic Ocean). For 
they say that in their times there were seven islands situated 
in that sea, which were sacred to Persephone; and three 
others of an immense magnitude, one of which was conse- 
crated to Pluto, another to Amnion, and that which was 
situated between them, to Poseidon ; the size of this last was 
no less than one thousand stadia. 

The inhabitants of this island preserved a tradition handed 
down from their ancestors, concerning the existence of the 



250 AMEEICA IN GENEEAL. 

Atlantic island of a prodigious magnitude, which had really- 
existed in those seas ; and which, during a long period of 
time, governed all the islands in the Atlantic Ocean. (Cory's 
Ancient Fragments, p. 233.) The smaller islands may con- 
tain an allusion either to the Cape Yerde or to the Canaries, 
in the latter of which some of the ancients placed the Elysian 
fields; the three larger point to some of the West India 
islands ; and the Atlantic island to the continent of America 
itself, which we may suppose to have been accidentally dis- 
covered by some ship driven far out of its usual course by 
violent and long-continued easterly winds, and the know- 
ledge of it lost again in the imperfect state of navigation 
among the ancients, prior to the discovery of the properties 
of the magnet, and the invention of the mariner's compass. 

V in. Indeed there is an account of a geographical discovery 
by the Phoenicians in Diodorus, which may, by possibility, be 
that of some part of the continent of America. To the 
west of Africa, says he, we meet with an island distant 
many days' sail from that part of the world. Its soil is 
fertile, its surface varied by mountains and valleys, and in- 
tersected by many navigable rivers. Its gardens are filled 
with all sorts of trees, and irrigated by abundant springs of 
water. It contains numerous country-houses magnificently 
furnished, surrounded by parterres of flowers and covered 
walks, to which the inhabitants of the country retreat during 
the heat of summer, for the purpose of enjoying those 
blessings which nature has poured forth with such profusion. 
The mountains of this island are covered with thick forests 
of fruit trees, and its valleys refreshed by numerous trans- 
parent streams. The chase supplies them abundantly with 
various descriptions of animals, so that there is no deficiency 
in their feasts, with respect either to plenty or luxury. In 
addition to this, the sea which surrounds this island produces 
a copious supply of all kinds of fish, which indeed may be 
regarded as one of its general properties. The air is so 
temperate that the trees retain both their leaves and fruit 
during the greater part of the year, and the island altogether 



AMERICA IN GENERAL. 251 

is so delightful that it appears to be rather the abode of gods 
than of men. Formerly it was entirely unknown, on ac- 
count of its great distance, and the Phoenicians were the 
first who discovered it. From a remote period they had 
been in the habit of trading in those seas, which induced 
them to establish colonies in Africa and in the western parts 
of Europe. In the course of this employment they were 
surprised by a violent tempest, which lasted many days, 
drove them into the ocean, and finally deposited them in the 
island which we have described. Having been the first to 
discover its beauty and fertility, they made them known to 
other nations. When the Tuscans became powerful by sea, 
they wished to establish a colony there, but were prevented 
by the Carthaginians. The attractions of this new country 
were so great, that they were apprehensive too many of their 
nation would be induced to emigrate to it ; and on the other 
hand they regarded it as a secure asylum, in the event of any 
great and unforeseen reverse happening to the city of Car- 
thage, when they hoped that their naval superiority would 
enable them to transfer the seat of empire to this island, 
while their conquerors, whoever they might be, from igno- 
rance of its situation would be unable to follow and molest 
them. (Diodorus, lib. v. c. 15.) \ / 

IV. There is still another view of the subject. Plato says, 
that the island of Atlantis was as large as Syria and Asia 
Minor put together, and situated in the Atlantic, and that 
nine thousand years had elapsed since the period when it 
ceased to exist. Nine thousand years carry us back to an 
era which, if not prior to the existence of the earth itself in 
its present form, is most assuredly long anterior to all trans- 
actions which we can identify with any known race of men. 
We find ourselves among the Praeadamites of the Orientals, 
the inhabitants of a former world. Sir William Jones, ad- 
dressing the members of the Asiatic Society, says: "Before 
you lies that prodigious chain of mountains (the Himalaya) 
which formerly perhaps were a barrier against the violence of 
the sea ; and the old maps in Ptolemy's Geography represent 



252 AMERICA IN GENERAL. 

the peninsula of India as united to Africa, and inclosing all 
the northern part of the Pacific Ocean in a huge mediterra- 
nean sea. Did the submersion of the southern continent 
of Ptolemy occasion the retreat of the waters from the 
peninsula of India as far as the base of the Himalaya ? Was 
that retreat followed, after a long interval of time, by the 
descent of the primitive people described by Bailly, from the 
table land of Tartary? Did the emersion of the present 
continents of North and South America from the bottom 
of the ocean by the force of central fire, submerge the 
Atlantic island of Plato, and form the actual bed of the 
Atlantic Ocean ? Is the account of the Deluge of Noah, 
the Indian Satyavrata, the Chaldean Xisuthrus, and the 
Greek Ogyges, and Deucalion, which is in no sense peculiar 
to the Jews, a dark tradition, imperfectly preserved, of the 
wreck and disappearance of a former world, and of the 
substitution of the present, not from the laboratory of Chaos, 
but from the bosom of the ocean? As the appearance of 
the globe proves to demonstration, that our present conti- 
nents once formed the bottom of the sea, not merely that 
the sea flowed over them as described in the Mosaic account 
of the Deluge, — a circumstance altogether inadequate to 
account for geological phenomena which cannot be disputed 
for a moment, what is now sea may have been land ; and the 
spots actually occupied by the great Pacific and Atlantic 
Oceans, the principal residences of the human race. All the 
laws of chemistry lead to the conclusion that matter is in its 
nature as imperishable as spirit, and that what in popular 
language is called the dissipation or destruction of a sub- 
stance, is only the liberation of its simple or elementary parts, 
which must necessarily form new combinations by the laws of 
the attraction of cohesion or of chemical affinity, and, to use 
the philosophical language of Ovid, " Omnia mutantur, nil 
interit." 

Y. It is undoubtedly true that since the dawn of authentic 
history, no records have been preserved of nature working 
on that gigantic scale, which geologists suppose when they 



AMERICA IN GENERAL. 253 

talk of the elevation of continents from the bottom of the 
sea, by the expansive force of central fire ; but it is equally 
true that numerous instances, both ancient and modern, are 
mentioned of nature operating in that mode ; so that if the 
hypothesis in question should be chargeable with arguing 
from causes which are inadequate to the production of the 
phenomena, it at any rate escapes the imputation of reason- 
ing from causes which have no real existence. Strabo re- 
lates that between Thera and Therasia, after eruptions of 
four days' continuance, fires issuing from the sea elevated by 
degrees, and pushed up from the bottom of the waters, at 
that time inflamed and boiling, as if by the aid of a machine, 
an island formed of volcanic matter, which was twelve stadia 
in circumference. The eruption being over, the Rhodians, 
who were at that time masters of the sea, had the courage to 
land first on the spot, and erected a temple to the Asphalian 
Neptune. The same author also informs us, that near 
Methone, in the Hermionic Gulf, a mountain of fire seven 
stadia in height, formed by the eruption of combustible 
matter, was seen to arise. Inaccessible during the daytime, 
both on account of its heat and its sulphureous odour ; in the 
night it diffused an agreeable smell, was conspicuous at a 
great distance, and gave out so intense a heat as to cause the 
sea to boil at five stadia distance, while as remote even as 
twenty stadia the waters were agitated and muddy. Almost 
the whole of this space was heaped with fragments of rock, 
equal to towers in bulk. (Strabo, lib. 1.) 

VI. According to the account of Xanthus of Lydia, a 
great drought happened in the reign of Artaxerxes, which 
exhausted the rivers, lakes, and wells. Xanthus pretended 
to have seen various sea-shells, and petrified cockles, and 
muscles, at a great distance from the sea, and marshes of 
salt water in Armenia, Mattiana, and lower Phrygia. 
From these circumstances he was persuaded that what is 
now land was once sea. Strabo was of opinion that the 
Euxine sea had formerly no outlet near Byzantium, but that 
the rivers which discharge themselves into that sea having 



254 AMERICA IN GENERAL. 

forced the obstacle, and opened themselves a passage, its 
waters rushed into the Propontis and the Hellespont; and 
that in the same way the Mediterranean, filled to overflowing 
by its rivers, broke through the isthmus which closed the 
Straits of Gibraltar, and by flowing through this new channel 
left, what had formerly been quicksands, dry land. (Strabo, 
lib. 1.) 

Art, empire, earth itself to change are doom'd. 
Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vale, 
And gulfs the mountain mighty mass entomb'd ; 
And where the Atlantic rolls wide continents have bloom'd. 

Beattie's Minstrel. 

VII. It is time, however, to dismiss these geological spe- 
culations, which have, perhaps, detained us too long. I was 
surprised to meet with a passage in the first book of Strabo, 
which proves, beyond a doubt, that the ancient geographers 
had formed a clear conception, and attained a decided con- 
viction, of the practicability of that scheme, which so many 
centuries later was carried into effect by Columbus. It is 
as follows : — The inhabited earth, says Eratosthenes, from 
the laws of nature, must be longer from east to west, than it 
is broad from north to south, as we have already remarked, 
because such is also the greatest dimension of the temperate 
zone. We know that this zone, as the mathematicians say, 
returning on itself, forms a complete circle ; so that if the 

EXTENT OF THE ATLANTIC SEA WERE NOT AN OBSTACLE, 
WE MIGHT SAIL FROM SPAIN INTO INDIA, ALWAYS FOLLOW- 
ING the same parallel of latitude. This is precisely 
the plan which occurred to Columbus ; and when he sailed 
from Palos in Andalusia, on the 3rd of August, in the year 
1492, it was with the hope and expectation of reaching the 
East Indies by holding a westerly course. It is a curious 
subject of speculation, whether or not Columbus ever saw the 
above passage in Strabo, and all the certainty we can attain 
on the point is, that if he ever read it, he must have read it 
in manuscript, as the Editio Princeps of Strabo was not 
printed before the year 1516 by Aldus, and then in Greek 
only, of which it does not appear that Columbus had any 



AMERICA IN GENERAL. 255 

knowledge whatever. There was no Latin translation of 
which he might have availed himself, earlier than 1549, 
while the oldest Italian version, that of Buonacciuoli, was 
not printed until 1562. According to Robertson, Columbus 
had completely matured his great plan so early as the year 
1474, and communicated it to Paul, a distinguished physician 
of Florence, so that this illustrious navigator appears to be 
fairly entitled to the honour of having both conceived and 
executed that daring enterprise which led to the discovery of 
the new world. 

viii. There is an apparent coincidence between India and 
Peru, remarked by Sir William Jones, which is worth 
noticing ; because, if well-founded, it would almost amount to 
a proof o'f a common origin between the two people, or a 
direct intercourse between the countries. The principal 
festival among the Peruvians was denominated Ramasitoa ; 
and when we recollect that the Incas pretended to be the 
descendants of the sun, and find two Ramas among the ten 
Indian Avatars or Incarnations of Yishnu, and that the name 
of the wife of one of them is Sita, there certainly is some 
ground for supposing that the word Ramasitoa combines the 
names of Rama and Sita. (Jones, 3 — 39.) 

ix. The article on the Life of Jefferson, in the fifty-first 
volume of the Edinburgh Review, contains the following inte- 
resting piece of information : — " Jefferson had collected at one 
time fifty vocabularies of the aboriginal tribes within his reach, 
extending to about 250 words ; of these, about 73 words were 
common to the Asiatic lists of 130 words collected by Pallas. 
A comparison of languages seems the only chance of furnish- 
ing something like a key among the hundred theories con- 
cerning the origin of the Indian tribes. But there was also 
a stimulating encouragement in the suspicion Jefferson enter- 
tained, that farther investigations would show a greater 
number of radical languages among the natives of America, 
than among those of the other hemisphere." I have not been 
able to meet with Pallas's list of 130 words; but if, as I 



256 AMERICA IN GENERAL. 

suppose, they were all collected among the subjects of Russia, 
in the north-eastern countries of Asia, and if 73 words, out 
of the 250 Indian words collected by Jefferson, coincided with 
them, and if, further, the degree of this coincidence was so 
close as to be obvious to the eyes of a common observer, as 
well as to those of an etymologist, which, like the eyes of a 
lover are not to be implicitly relied on, as they perceive 
what no one else can discover, and see " Helen's beauty in a 
brow of Egypt," it appears to me, that the question as to 
the origin of the North American tribes is set at rest, and 
that there can hardly be a doubt that they migrated from the 
North-east of Asia. 

~$„ The following passage from Dr. Prichard's valuable 
work on the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations is deserving 
of an attentive perusal : — (i Philologists have sought in vain 
in the old continent for a nation from whose speech the 
diversified idioms of America may with any degree of proba- 
bility be derived; but an examination of the American 
languages themselves has led to some interesting results. 
The native races of North America are referred, by a classi- 
fication of their dialects, to a few great divisions, several of 
which extend as radii, issuing from a common centre in the 
north-western part of the continent, where it is divided from 
Asia by Behring's Straits. The traditions prevalent among 
the ancient Mexicans seem to have derived credit from the 
discovery of a chain of mountains, extending almost from 
New Mexico to Mount St. Elias, in the neighbourhood of 
the Esquimaux Tschugazzi; their languages, particularly 
those of the Ugalyachmutzi and Koluschians, bear a curious 
analogy to that of the Aztecs and Tlaxcallans. Another 
series of nations, the Karalit or Esquimaux, connected by 
affinities of dialect, has been traced from the settlements of 
the Tschuklschi in Asia along the polar zone to Acadia and 
Greenland. Light has also been thrown in a similar manner 
on the history of the Lenni Lenape, and the great kindred 
family of the Algonquin nations, on that of the Iroquois, 
and likewise of the Floridian and other races of North 



AMERICA IN GENERAL. 257 

America, by a comparison of their national traditions with 
the indications discovered in their dialects. One circumstance, 
which is perhaps of more importance than all the preceding, 
is the singular congruity in structure between all the 
American languages, from the northern to the southern ex- 
tremity of the continent." (Prichard, pages 5 and 6.) Z~— - - 

xi." One of the most interesting and apparently authentic 
notices of the languages of the North American Indians I 
have ever met with, is contained in the following extract 
from a work of Dr. Jonathan Edwards, entitled " Obser- 
vations on the Language of the Muhhekaniew Indians, COm- 
municated to the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences," 
published at the request of the Society, and printed by 
Josiah Meigs, 1788. Dr. Edwards, who was pastor of a 
church in New-Haven, gives the following account : — "When 
I was but six years of age my father removed with his 
family to Stockbridge, which at that time was inhabited by 
Indians almost solely. The Indians being the nearest neigh- 
bours I constantly associated with them ; their boys were my 
daily school-mates and play-fellows. Out of my father's 
house I seldom heard any language spoken beside the Indian. 
By these means I acquired the knowledge of that language, 
and a great facility in speaking it : it became more familiar 
to me than my mother tongue. I knew the names of some 
things in Indian which I did not know in English. Even all 
my thoughts ran in Indian ; and though the true pronun- 
ciation of the language is extremely difficult to all but them- 
selves, they acknowledged that I had acquired it perfectly ; 
which, as they said, had never been acquired before by any 
Anglo-American. 

" The language which is now the subject of observation is 
that of the Muhhekaniew or Stockbridge Indians. They, as 
well as the tribe at New London, are by the Anglo-Ameri- 
cans called Mohegans. The language is spoken by all the 
Indians throughout New England. Every tribe, as that of 
Stockbridge, of Farmington, of New London, &c, has a dif- 
ferent dialect ; but the language is radically the same. Mr. 

s 



258 AMERICA IN GENERAL. 

Elliot's translation of the Bible is in a particular dialect of 
this language. This language appears to be much more 
extensive than any other in North America. The language 
of the Delawares in Pennsylvania ; of the Penobscots 
bordering on Nova Scotia ; of the Indians of St. Francis 
in Canada ; of the Shawanese on the Ohio ; and of the 
Chippewaus at the westward of Lake Huron ; are all radi- 
cally the same with the Mohegan. The same is said con- 
cerning the languages of the Otto wans, Nanticooks, Munsees, 
Menomonees, Messisaugas, Saukies, Ottagaumies, Killistinoes, 
Nipegons, Alg.onkins, Winnebagoes, &c. That the lan- 
guages of the several tribes in New England, of the Dela- 
wares, and of Mr. Elliot's Bible, are radically the same with 
the Mohegan, I assert from my own knowledge." * ' - 

The extract concludes with the following very important 
remark, which throws more light on the nature and formation 
of language, than can be collected from many treatises called 
philosophical, contained in ponderous folios. 

" The Mohegans have no adjectives in all their 
language. Although it may at first sight seem not only 
singular and curious, but impossible, that a language should 
exist without adjectives, yet it is an indubitable fact." (Di- 
versions of Purley, vol. ii. p. 461.) 

Of the fact itself I have not the smallest doubt, and be- 
lieve it may be very easily and satisfactorily accounted for. 
The reason I conceive to be, that not only in the language 
of the Mohegans, but in that of all other people that ever 
existed, nouns substantive were originally descriptive of the 
nature and qualities of the objects to which they were ap- 
plied, and that it was not until the primary meaning of 
proper names was lost in the progress, or confusion, of lan- 
guage, that adjectives became necessary ; and that in all 
languages at present, when used with most propriety and 
correctness, they answer no other purpose than to enumerate 
or recapitulate the qualities, or in other words to restore the 
lost signification of the noun to which they are attached, for 
exemplifications of which I must refer to the chapter on ad- 
jectives. 



AMERICA IN GENERAL. 259 

xii. During several years past, the remains of architecture 
and sculpture, discovered in various parts of South America, 
have induced many to come to the conclusion that they prove 
the existence of a people who had made greater advances in 
the arts than the Mexicans and Peruvians. I can discovei 
no adequate grounds for such an opinion ; but should it be 
well founded, the probability is, that some inscriptions in 
alphabetical characters will be found, which will enable us 
to conjecture, with more confidence, to what quarter of 
Asia we are to look for the original colonisers of the New 
World 



s 2 



260 



CHAP. XXIV. 



ON HIEROGLYPHICS. 



" Quinetiam notissimum fieri jam ccepit, quod in China, et Provinciis ultimi 
Orientis, in usu hodie sint Characteres quidam Reales, non Nominates,- qui 
scilicet nee literas, nee verba, sed res et notiones exprimunt. — Adeo ut Gentes 
complures, linguis prorsus discrepantes, sed hujusmodi Characteribus (qui apud 
illos latius recepti sunt) consentientes, scriptis communicent : eousque, ut 
librum aliquem hujusmodi characteribus conscriptum, quaeque Gens, patria 
lingua legere et reddere possit." — Bacon de Augmentis Scientiarum, liber vi. 



I. In the whole circle of human knowledge there are few 
subjects of greater interest and curiosity than to trace the 
history of the origin and progress of the art of writing. If 
it be second in importance to any thing, it is only to the 
formation of language itself, and with this it is intimately 
connected, borrows light from it, and reflects it back also in 
no inconsiderable degree. 

As language appears to have owed its origin to the phy- 
sical necessities, and its extension to the intellectual powers 
of the human race, so in the invention and progress of 
writing man seems to have been stimulated and prompted 
at every step by his sympathetic affections and social pro- 
pensities. One of the strongest passions of the human 
breast is the love of fame, or the desire of being remembered 
and talked of beyond the transitory and evanescent period of 
the duration of life, and in proportion to the strength of this 
desire is its opposite aversion, that of being forgotten. 
From the operation of this feeling no age or condition is 
entirely exempt, and those who cannot hope "to command 
the applause of listening senates," or " to read their history 
in a nation's eyes," are still anxious to record that they 
have existed, though the frail memorial which covers their 
mouldering remains may not have a single sentence to com- 
municate as to what they have performed. 



HIEKOGLYPHICS. 261 

ii. As a nation is merely a collection of individuals, we 
cannot be surprised at finding the mass actuated by the same 
feelings as had distinguished the component parts, and ac- 
cordingly we discover in every age and country of the world, 
an extreme anxiety to transmit a record of their proceedings 
to the latest posterity in imperishable annals. The means 
resorted to for this purpose have had no limit but the in- 
ventive faculties of the human mind, all the powers of which 
have been in succession excited and exhausted. The rude 
mound of earth (like those which credulity still believes to 
have covered the remains of Ajax and Achilles in the 
Troade), the rugged stone which commemorated the parting 
of Jacob and Laban, the sculptured pillar, the stupendous 
pyramid, the triumphal arch, the storied urn, the animated 
bust, the breathing statue and the glowing picture, attest 
the strong interest man has always taken in futurity, and 
the immense importance he has always attached to that 
semblance of life which consists in others' breath. 

ill. Previously to the invention of alphabetical writing, — 
so simple when known that we wonder it was not always 
practised, so complex while in progress that we are equally 
surprised it was ever perfected, — various modes of picture 
writing prevailed, which, though mixed in different degrees 
and running into each other by insensible gradations, may 
all be comprised under three great heads or classes. 

1. Literal hieroglyphics, or simple picture writing. Of 
this kind almost all the Mexican paintings appear to have 
been ; and reasoning from analogy it is hardly possible to 
doubt that this was the first stage of the art, both in Egypt 
and China. Whether any of the remaining monuments of 
Egypt are precisely similar to those of Mexico, and to be 
interpreted merely as pictures, it is extremely difficult to say ; 
but if they are, the difficulty, already sufficiently formidable, 
is obviously greatly enhanced, of eliciting any intelligible 
meaning from them. Perhaps in many instances we have 
been endeavouring to extract a mysterious and recondite 
meaning from what is merely a picture, and to be interpreted 

s 3 



262 HIEBOGLYPHICS. 

as such ; and on the other hand I believe a great deal of the 
extravagant mythology of India, Greece, and Italy, to have 
had no other origin than reading hieroglyphics as pictures ; 
that is, in resting satisfied with a literal and obvious meaning, 
while the writer intended to convey a figurative and occult 
one. The description of Berosus of the pictures painted on 
the walls of the temple of Belus is evidently that of hiero- 
glyphics, which require to be interpreted on the principle of 
those of Egypt, as conveying a hidden meaning, and by 
receiving them literally as pictures, without seeking for such 
a hidden meaning, we have at once many of the personages 
of the Greek mythology whose characters are so unintel- 
ligible, and whose actions are so extravagant. (Cory's An- 
cient Fragments, p. 23.) 

2. Figurative hieroglyphics, which resembled a picture 
only in form, while its spirit was entirely different, as its 
object was not so much to represent visible objects as to 
describe intellectual and moral qualities, express relations, 
convey the mysteries of religion, inculcate political maxims, 
and enforce ethical precepts. How perfectly or imper- 
fectly they answered this end among the ancient Egyptians, 
we are not informed, but we know too well that they have 
conveyed very little information of any sort to any other 
people. The greater part of the Chinese writing is precisely 
similar to that of ancient Egypt, and is merely a simplified 
hieroglyphic, in which different combinations of straight 
and curved lines are substituted for the rude delineation 
of visible objects. But the principle is exactly the same, 
both being real characters or the signs of things directly, 
without the slightest reference to the words or sounds 
by which those things are expressed in conversation; so 
that the writings of the Chinese are as intelligible to 
the Japanese, the Tonquinese, and the Coreans as to 
themselves, though they speak different languages ; in the 
same manner as the ciphers said to have been borrowed 
from the Arabians are intelligible to all the nations of 
Europe, as long as they continue to look at them, and 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 263 

become the reverse the moment they begin to talk about 
them. 

3. Phonetic Hieroglyphics, or figures of visible objects, 
which in some instances discharge the office, and approxi- 
mate to the nature and character of letters or alphabetical 
characters. It had been long known that something of this 
sort existed among the Chinese, and was had recourse to 
when they wished to convey an idea of the names of persons 
or places; but its existence among the Egyptians was hardly 
suspected prior to the arrival of the Rosetta Inscription in 
this country, which being written in three modes, Hiero- 
glyphic, Enchorial, and Greek, enabled Dr. Young by a 
rare display of learning, sagacity, and perseverance, not 
only to read the words Ptolemy and Berenice, but to make 
considerable progress in a Hieroglyphic or Enchorial al- 
phabet. I shall now make a few observations on each of 
these three sorts of Hieroglyphical writing, beginning with 
Picture Writing. 

1. Picture Writing. 

IV. After the art of painting, or that of representing the 
form and colour of visible objects on a flat surface, had 
become generally known and practised, the most obvious 
idea of preserving and transmitting the memory of any 
great exploit, was to delineate or paint it ; and this was done 
by the ancient Greeks, who employed Polygnotus, one of 
their greatest artists, to represent the battle of Marathon, in 
one of their porticoes, which from this circumstance obtained 
the name of Poecile, or painted, The Greeks did not do 
this from necessity, as they then were and probably had long 
been in possession of the art of alphabetical writing ; but 
from being fully aware that painting, though as an art it is 
incomparably less comprehensive, various, and exact than 
writing, so far as it goes has many material advantages over 
it. In the painting in question, for instance, the portrait 
of Miltiades, as delineated by Polygnotus, conveyed a much 
more lively idea of him to posterity than any written 
description could do ; while Herodotus's account of the battle, 

s 4 



264 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

on the other hand, makes us acquainted with innumerable 
circumstances, the knowledge of which could never have 
been conveyed by painting, and is as perfect now as at 
the moment it was first written ; while Athens and all its 
monuments of architecture, sculpture, and painting is a heap 
of ruins. To the Greeks, painting was one of the fine arts, 
the growth of luxury. Among other nations we find it 
existing as one of the necessary arts, the produce of con- 
venience, and such were the Mexicans at the period of the 
arrival of the Spaniards among them. Being entirely 
destitute of the art of alj)habetical writing, they had no 
other means of informing their Emperor Montezuma of the 
great event which had taken place, than by making pictures 
of the Spaniards, their ships, horses, arms, clothing, accou- 
trements, and all the other objects, which struck them as 
new and singular. In this case, however, the want of 
alphabetical writing could not have been severely felt, as 
the messengers who were the bearers of the pictured des- 
patches were no doubt able to supply the omissions, aid the 
imperfections, and elucidate the obscurities incident to this 
contrivance, from their own ocular experience. It is only 
when we form an idea in our minds of these painted annals 
some centuries after the events they record, of the pictures 
without the commentators, or any other extraneous sources 
of elucidation, that we become fully impressed with a sense 
of their great, numerous, and necessary imperfections. One 
of the most elaborate of these paintings was published by 
Purchas in thirty-six plates, and is divided into three parts. 
The first contains the history of the Mexican empire under 
its ten monarchs ; the second is a tribute roll representing 
what each conquered town paid into the royal treasury, and 
the third is a code of their institutions, domestic, political, 
and military. Another specimen of Mexican painting has 
been published in thirty-two plates by the Archbishop of 
Toledo, and to both is annexed a full explanation of what 
the figures were intended to represent, which was obtained 
by the Spaniards from Indians well acquainted with their 
own arts. 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 265 

v. One of the most curious circumstances, in the history 
of almost every art or science, is to trace the slow and la- 
borious efforts by which they were carried to perfection, to 
mark the long intervals which separate every advance, and 
how little was gained by each successive step, to note how 
the deficiencies of invention are remedied by the efforts of 
perseverance, and the imperfections of the intellectual atoned 
for by the excellencies of the moral nature of man. In the 
paintings of the Mexicans, however, we cannot discover 
much progress, or indeed that they ever deviated es- 
sentially from their original character of mere paintings. 
Dr. Robertson remarks, that upon an attentive examination 
of the plates alluded to, we may observe some approach 
to the plain or simple hieroglyphic, where some leading 
part, or circumstance in the subject, is made to stand 
for the whole. In the annals of their kings, published by 
Purchas, the towns conquered by each are uniformly repre- 
sented in the same manner by a rude delineation of a house ; 
but, in order to point out the particular towns which sub- 
mitted to their victorious arms, peculiar emblems, sometimes 
natural objects, and sometimes artificial figures, are employed. 
In the tribute roll, published by the Archbishop of Toledo, 
the house which was properly the picture of the town is 
omitted, and the emblem alone is employed to represent it. 
After the material addition that has been made to our hiero- 
glyphical knowledge, by the instrumentality of the Rosetta 
Inscriptions, it would be curious to ascertain if all or any of 
these emblems were phonetic, and contained the Mexican 
name of the city or town. One of the most obvious modes 
of designating any particular place, is to delineate the natural 
production for which it is most remarkable. If a Mexican 
painter, for instance, had wished to convey an idea of Tadmor 
in the Desert, he would perhaps have added a palm tree to 
the character employed to denote city ; but no Roman could 
have pronounced the name of that emblem, or natural object, 
palma, without at the same time pronouncing also the second 
name of the city, Palmyra, and the same observation will 
apply to a host of other places. The Mexicans appear to 



266 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

have made some advances beyond this, and, in a few particular 
instances, to have made use of the more figurative and fanci- 
ful hieroglyphic. In order to describe a monarch who had 
enlarged his dominions by force of arms, they painted a 
target ornamented with darts, and placed it between him and 
those towns which he subdued, but, generally speaking, they 
made few attempts to convey any idea of qualities, either 
moral or intellectual, and restricted all their efforts to the 
delineation of the visible, the tangible, and the material. 
(Robertson's America, book vii.) 

vi. To be convinced of the extreme imperfection of this 
Mexican picture writing, and of the very limited degree of 
information that is or can in the nature of things be con- 
veyed by it, we have only to reflect on the restricted powers 
of the art, in its most advanced state. The imitations of 
every particular picture, however perfect, are limited to a 
moment of time, — the necessary consequence of which is, 
that it conveys a very imperfect notion of the causes which 
produced, or the consequences which resulted from, the 
action delineated. The three unities of action, time, and 
place, which the ancient drama so rigidly prescribed, and the 
modern has so rarely observed, the painter can never by any 
effort escape from. He can denote the succession of time, 
only by a series of pictures, and the number of the latter 
must keep exact pace with the moments of delineation of the 
former. Such a series, arranged in a chronological order, 
may convey some very imperfect idea of the relations of 
cause and effect; but we can never be quite confident at 
which end we are to begin, except from some information 
extraneous to the series itself. If painted in fresco on a 
wall the arrangement cannot easily be disturbed, until they 
are cut out of the wall, and transferred to canvas, — a process 
with which we are now perfectly familiar ; but supposing such 
a series painted on paper, and arranged in portfolios, the chro- 
nology of an empire is as liable to be disturbed as the leaves 
of the Sibyl; and one cannot but conjecture that that of 
Egypt, India, and China has suffered by some such untoward 
accident. 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 267 

" Insanam Vatem aspicies ; qua3 rupe sub ima 
Fata canit, foliisque notas et nornina mandat. 
Qusecunque in foliis descripsit carmina Virgo, 
Digerit in numerum, atque antro seclusa relinquit. 
Ilia manent immota locis, neque ab ordine cedunt. 
Verum eadem, verso tenuis cum cardine ventus 
Impulit, et teneras turbavit janua frondes, 
Numquam deinde cavo volitantia prendere saxo, 
Nee revocare situs, aut jungere carmina curat." * 

Virg. JEneid. lib. iii. 443. 

VII. To be convinced how much previous knowledge the 
art of painting supposes and requires in the spectator, and 
how very inconsiderable is the addition made to that stock 
by the artist, let us consider how much we should have 
brought away from the contemplation of the Sistine Chapel, 
the Camere of the Vatican, or the Cartoons, if we had not 
gone with minds prepared, but trusted entirely to the paint- 
ings .themselves to tell their own story, and make their own 
impression; and yet these are unquestionably among the 
most gigantic efforts and splendid triumphs of art. In an- 
other instance, how false is the impression conveyed by the 
last work of perhaps the very greatest genius the art of 
painting has ever produced, the Transfiguration of Raphael ! 
If judged of by the three unities of action, time, and place, 
from which it is as difficult for the painter to escape, as for 
the dramatist to submit to, the composition is faulty every 
way ; as there are two distinct actions, the Transfiguration 
of Christ, and the Miracle of the Demoniac Boy ; two dis- 
tinct places, the summit of the mountain, and the plain 

* " The mad prophetic Sibyl you shall find 
Dark in a cave, and on a rock reclined. 
She sings the Fates, and in her frantic fits 
The notes and names inscribed to leaves commits. 
What she commits to leaves in order laid 
Before the cavern's entrance are display'd. 
Unmoved they lie : but if a blast of wind 
Without, or vapours issue from behind, 
The leaves are borne aloft in liquid air ; 
And she resumes no more her museful care, 
Nor gathers from the rocks her scatter'd verse, 
Nor sets in order what the winds disperse." 

Dryden's Virgil. 



268 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

below ; and two distinct times, while Jesus was in the Mount, 
and after he had descended from it. It is possible, however, 
to form such a conception of the subject as that the unities 
shall not be violated. We are informed (Matthew, xvh\ 16.) 
that the disciples had been unable to heal the boy, and we 
may suppose that this unsuccessful attempt exactly coincided 
with the moment of Christ's Transfiguration, that the former 
took place at the bottom, and the latter at the top of the 
mountain; and that the artist intended to represent not 
simply how Christ was employed, but the other nine 
Apostles also, Peter, James, and John being with him ; "and 
we preserve the unities, and repel the charge which has 
been brought against Raphael, that the Transfiguration con- 
tains two perfectly distinct pictures in the same frame. The 
probability, however, is, that Raphael was determined to 
paint the Transfiguration, though perfectly aware, as he 
could hardly have failed to be, that it was in many respects 
an unfavourable subject for his art. Unless the top of the 
mountain had occupied the top of the picture he would have 
failed in giving an idea of its elevation. If he had confined 
himself to the representation of the Transfiguration solely, 
not only would all the light have been concentrated in the 
top of the picture, but the bottom would have been absolutely 
without subject, two grievous violations of the great laws of 
Chiaro-scuro and Composition. The former circumstance 
was incident to the very nature of the subject, and has always 
appeared a fault to every judicious critic ; but by introducing 
the Demoniac Boy, and the other disciples at the bottom of 
the picture, Raphael redeemed his composition, and by re- 
garding the moment of the unsuccessful attempt at healing 
as identical with that of the Transfiguration, which the 16th 
verse left him at liberty to do, he gave unity to the top and 
bottom of his picture, and rendered the subject one and 
harmonious. 

2. Figurative, or Proper Hieroglyphics. 

viii. We have seen the limited range of picture writing, 
that it could do no more than delineate external events, and 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 269 

that very imperfectly, that is, was incapable of exhibiting 
their relations and connections, of describing such qualities 
as were not visible to the eye, and of conveying any idea of 
the virtues, the vices, or the disposition of mankind; — 
except so far as they are expressed by the countenance. 
Warburton regards the Hieroglyphics of the Egyptians as 
of three kinds, viz. — 

1. The first was to make the principal circumstance in 
the subject stand for the whole, and when they would de- 
scribe a battle, for instance, or two armies in array to paint 
two hands, one holding a shield and the other a bow ; when 
a tumult, or popular insurrection, an armed man casting 
arrows; when a siege, a scaling ladder. This was very 
little more than an abridged picture writing, which lost in 
clearness more than was gained by the saving of time. To 
those who were not informed of the circumstances to which 
these contractions alluded they must have been unintelligible ; 
to those who were informed, useless; and no attempt was 
yet made to represent any thing beyond external objects, or 
visible appearances. 

2. The second method, was by putting the instrument of 
the thing, whether real or metaphorical, for the thing itself. 
An eye, for example, eminently placed, was designed to re- 
present God's omniscience; an eye and a sceptre to represent 
a monarch ; a sword their cruel tyrant Ochus ; and a ship 
and pilot, the governor of the universe. 

3. The third method was to make one thing stand for or 
represent another, where any point of resemblance or analogy 
in the representative could be collected from their observations 
of nature, or their traditional superstitions. 

Of these three sorts of hieroglyphics, Warburton denomi- 
nates the first Curiologic, the second Tropical, and the third 
Symbolic. As the classes are not very clearly discriminated, 
we may reasonably doubt, not merely the accuracy of the 
division, but whether there are any grounds and materials in 
existence for making it more so. 

ix. Of the numerous instances of interpretations, or pre- 
tended interpretations of the hieroglyphics of Egypt, it may 



270 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

be doubted if one is perfectly correct, unless accompanied and 
corroborated by an Enchorial translation. Almost all our 
knowledge of the subject is derived from the Greeks, and 
there is too much reason for believing that in this, and in- 
numerable other cases, they substituted plausible conjecture 
for patient investigation, and confident assertion for rational 
conviction. Some of the most remarkable hieroglyphic 
figures were the following. 

According to the properties which they ascribed to animals, 
or the qualities with which they supposed natural objects to 
be endowed, they pitched upon them to be the emblems or 
hieroglyphics of moral subjects, and employed them in their 
writing for that end. For instance, ingratitude was denomi- 
nated by a viper, imprudence by a fly, wisdom by an ant, 
victory by a hawk, a dutiful child by a stork, a man uni- 
versally shunned by an eel, which they supposed to be found 
in company with no other fish ; and sometimes they joined 
together two or more of these hieroglyphical characters, as 
a serpent with a hawk's head, to denote nature with God 
presiding over it. The universe was designated by a serpent 
in a circle, whose variegated spots signified the stars, and the 
sunrise by the two eyes of the crocodile, because they seem 
to emerge from its head ; a widow, who never admits a second 
mate, by a black pigeon ; one dead of a fever, contracted by 
the over great solar heat, by a blind scarabaeus ; a client flying 
for relief to his patron, and finding none, by a sparrow and 
owl ; a king inexorable, and estranged from his people by an 
eagle ; a man who exposes his children through poverty, by a 
hawk ; a wife who hates her husband, or children who injure 
their mother, by a viper; one initiated into the mysteries, 
and so under the obligation of secrecy, by a grasshopper, 
which was thought to have no mouth. The popular super- 
stition supplied a hieroglyphic in some cases. He, for in- 
stance, who had borne his misfortunes with courage, and had 
at length surmounted them, was signified by the hyena, be- 
cause the skin of that animal, used as a defence in battle, was 
supposed to make the wearer fearless and invulnerable. 
(Blair, lecture vii. ; Warburton, book iv.) 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 271 

x. A moment's reflection will convince any person that 
such a mode of writing never could, by any possibility, have 
been the vehicle of clear, certain, and valuable knowledge. 
For instance, if I meet with the figure of a hawk in an 
Egyptian hieroglyph, how am I to determine whether it 
signifies the sun, or victory, or a man who exposes his 
children through poverty? — meanings widely dissimilar, and 
which, nevertheless, were all occasionally expressed by a 
hawk, we are informed. Again, if I meet with the figure of 
a viper, how am I to discriminate if it is the sign of the 
quality of ingratitude generally, or of a wife who hates her 
husband, or children who injure their mother, as all these 
were denoted by a viper ? or how am I to distinguish a viper 
from a serpent, the latter of which is said to have been an 
emblem of eternity ? Warburton mentions that celebrated 
inscription on the Temple of Minerva at Sais, so much 
spoken of by the ancients, where an infant, an old man, a 
hawk, a fish, and a river horse, expressed this moral sentence, 
"All you who come into the world, and go out of it, know this, 
that the Grods hate impudence ; " and in Enfield's History of 
Philosophy I read, " Upon a temple dedicated to Neitha 
(Minerva) at Sais, the chief town in Lower Egypt, was this 
inscription : f I am whatever is, or has been, or will be, and no 
mortal has hitherto drawn aside my veil ; my offspring is the 
sun." If this be the same sentence, thus harmoniously in- 
terpreted, it appears to me that though reason may not stand 
aghast, the firmest hieroglyphical faith must be much more 
than half confounded. This inscription is mentioned both 
by Plutarch and Proclus, though with some difference of 
language." (Enfield, book i. chap. 8.) 

xr. It is quite certain that the authorities, on which War- 
burton in his Divine Legation of Moses chiefly relied for his 
Egyptian knowledge, have rather declined than advanced in 
character since his time. Some, indeed, are fallen so low that 
they cannot be said to have any character to lose. For 
instance, he mentions the work of Horapollo in the following 
terms : " That admirable fragment of antiquity, the hiero- 



272 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

glyphics of Horapollo ; " and again, " that excellent treatise 
of Horapollo, which consists chiefly of the ancient and 
proper hieroglyphics ; " and yet of this admirable fragment, 
this excellent treatise, the respectable work of Enfield re- 
marks on the authority of Fabricius, " the book De Hiero- 
glyphicis, under the name of Horus Apollo, is spurious." 
Another of his authorities, the Isiac, or Bembine Table, has 
not fared much better. It was discovered in 1630, and 
presented to Vincent, Duke of Mantua. In this tablet, 
Kircher discovered sundry religious mysteries favourable to 
Christianity, and Pigonius found precepts of moral and 
political wisdom ; while another critic was of opinion that it 
was a Runic Calendar ; and a fourth attempted to persuade 
the learned world that these characters described the pro- 
perties and use of the magnet and of the mariner's compass. 
Of this, Sir William Jones remarked fifty years ago 3 "as to the 
table and busts of Isis, they seem to be given up as modern 
forgeries," and the intelligent writer of the article " Egypt," 
in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, expresses 
a decided opinion that it is a Roman work, as well as the 
Pamphilian and Barberinian Obelisks, and consequently that 
the whole possess no sort of value or authenticity. 

xii. There are strong grounds for believing that, even in 
the age of Herodotus, the hieroglyphics conveyed little or no 
information to the Egyptian priests themselves. He informs 
us that, iu a succession of 330 kings, none but Moeris was 
distinguished ; and we learn from Diodorus that the de- 
scendants of Menes, to the number of 52, reigned more than 
1400 years, during which period nothing remarkable happened. 
This is absolutely impossible, and utterly incredible, and can 
only be accounted for by supposing that their pretended 
history was no more than a barren catalogue of names, or 
that the hieroglyph ical characters, intended to convey 
historical information, were become a dead letter to the 
priests, as well as to all the rest of mankind. I incline to the 
former supposition, and believe that Manetho's Dynasties 
were merely a list of the names of kings, or pretended kings, 
written phoneticallv like the Ptolemy and Berenice in the 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 273 

Rosetta Inscription. Perhaps it will be asked why the 
hieroglyphics of Egypt, which were a real character, or the 
signs of things, should have been susceptible of less perfection 
than the system of writing of the Chinese, which is also a 
real character, and which we are quite certain contains many 
books, as many of them have been read and translated by 
Europeans, and as it is a fact about which there cannot be 
the slightest doubt, that among the Chinese we find Grammars 
and Dictionaries formed on a simple and intelligible principle, 
by the assistance of which any one may learn the language, 
perhaps with as little difficulty as Sanskrit. To which I 
reply, that the cases of Egypt and China are by no means 
parallel, as there is every reason to believe that the former 
country possessed a proper alphabet from a remote antiquity, 
and as it has stronger claims than perhaps any other to be 
regarded as the inventor of letters. From the moment that 
alphabetical writing was perfected, there ceased to be any 
motive for making efforts to improve the hieroglyphical ; and 
one would conclude that it was abandoned to the priests, and 
its use confined by them to the ceremonies and mysteries of 
religion. The objection to this view of the subject is, that 
no inscription in Egyptian or Coptic letters appears on any 
of their monuments, and that no one, that I am aware of, has 
ever seen any specimen of Egyptian writing older than the 
fragments of the version of the Old and New Testaments. 
But there is this broad difference between the Egyptian 
hieroglyphics and the Chinese characters, that the number 

OF THE FORMER, WHICH HAYE BEEN CLEARLY ASCER- 
TAINED AND DEFINED, IS UNDER ONE THOUSAND ; WHILE 
THAT OF THE LATTER IS CERTAINLY UPWARDS OF FORTY 
THOUSAND, AND SOME ACCOUNTS SWELL THEM TO TWICE 

AS many. One thousand characters are too many to have 
been the keys of a real language, as their number 
would have been unmanageable by the most retentive 
memory, and we find that the Chinese amount to no 
more than two hundred and fourteen ; and they are equally 
too few to have constituted the body of a real 
language. The inference therefore is, that no system of 

T 



274 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

real language was ever perfected by the Egyptians, and that 
their inscriptions were sometimes mere picture-writing, like 
those of the Mexicans, sometimes each object had a figurative, 
recondite, or mystic meaning, and sometimes was merely a 
letter forming part of a phonetic or complex alphabetical 
system, which was somewhat simplified in the enchorial 
character, of which we are beginning to understand a little, 
and shall probably never know much, from want of materials. 

3. Phonetic Hieroglyphics. 

xiii. It is remarkable that one of the six classes under 
which the Chinese keys are arranged is Phonetic, and that 
when they write foreign names, they are in the habit of 
annexing on the left-hand side of the character their mark 
for a mouth, to give warning to the reader that in this 
instance their usual system is relinquished, and that he is 
not to look for the meaning of the character but its sound. 
The characters for a mouth, both in their old system and in 
their modern, may be seen in the Supplement to the Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica, article China, p. 84. May not the 
latter be precisely identical with the Egyptian cartouche, 
which answers the same purpose, and was it not intended to 
represent a mouth ? Clemens Alexandrinus informs us that 
the Egyptians represented the sun by a circle, and the moon 
by a half circle. The Egyptian name of the moon is Ioh, 
and of the Chinese Yue, the sounds of which are very much 
alike. 

xiv. The author of the article Egypt, in the Supplement 
to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, says that Serapis was a 
name of the sun. (p. 42.) If so, the word would appear to 
be cognate with the Hebrew Seraph, to burn, and Seraph, an 
archangel. Tacitus says that some regarded Serapis as 
identical with iEsculapius, some with Pluto, some with 
Jupiter, and some with Osiris. Agathodemon, Cneph, or 
Cnuphis, who is figured in the hieroglyphics by a winged 
globe, appears also to have derived his name from the 
Hebrew Chanaph, a wing. This word is at once like Cneph 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 275 

and Canopus ; of the latter of whom the Mythologists ap- 
pear to know next to nothing. The winged globe may be 
merely Phonetic of the name of Cneph. 

xy. The Phonetic name of Neith has not yet been 
discovered, and one of the most likely circumstances to lead 
to it is its true etymology. The two preceding words, 
Serapis and Cneph, would induce us to suspect that the 
ancient Egyptian and Hebrew languages had many terms in 
common, and we may suppose that Neith was formed from 
the Hebrew word Aith, time, with the Egyptian prefix or 
mark of case An, contracted to N, Naith or Neith ; or, with- 
out going out of Egypt, we have Nei, time, which, with the 
feminine article Th affixed instead of prefixed, would give 
us nearly the same letters. Almost all the principal deities 
of Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome, are ultimately resolv- 
able into the sun, the moon, the earth, and the sea. Apu- 
leius, as quoted by Warburton, makes Isis declare that she 
was Nature, the great parent of all things, and that she was 
worshipped by different nations under various names ; that 
the Phrygians called her the mother of the Gods (Cybele), 
the Athenians Minerva, the Cyprians Venus, the Cretans 
Diana, the Sicilians Proserpine, the Eleusinians Ceres, some 
Juno, some Bellona, some Hecate, and some Rhamnusia, 
while the Egyptians adored her under the name of Isis. It 
is hardly possible to doubt that the Greeks formed Athene 
by writing Neitha backwards; that is, reversing the Oriental 
mode ; and in Arabic we have Nahid, a name of the planet 
Yenus, which reversed gives Dihan, Greek, in Persic Nihad, 
nature, which Sir William Jones writes also Nahid. Strabo 
informs us that the Armenian name of Yenus was Anaitis ; 
also that Ma was a name of Bellona, which in Sanskrit sig- 
nifies both the moon and time. In whatever direction we 
turn, we discover that the deities of Polytheism diminish as 
our knowledge of language increases, and find reason to be- 
lieve that the corruption of natural religion was the effect of 
the confusion of tongues, as a new name gradually produced 
a new god or goddess. From one or the other of the above 

T 2 



276 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

names we may certainly form a probable conjecture as to the 
meaning of the celebrated inscription upon the temple of 
Neitha, or Minerva, at Sais : " I am whatever is, or has been, 
or will be, and no mortal has hitherto drawn aside my veil ; 
my offspring is the sun." If Neit, in the language of ancient 
Egypt, signified time, I should be strongly disposed to derive 
our English word eternity from Ter, all, and Neit, time, both 
Egyptian ; or, rather, to suppose that the Romans formed e terni- 
tas, as we probably borrowed our word immediately from them. 

xvi. Almost all the Greek writers are agreed in identify- 
ing the Egyptian Thoth with their own Hermes, or Mer- 
cury. One cannot but suspect that the hieroglyphic of a 
hand, Tot, is Phonetic of his Egyptian name Thoth, and of a 
tear, Erme, of his Greek name Hermes. Plutarch says that 
Osiris was typified by a hawk, and denoted hieroglyphically 
by an eye and a sceptre. The leading idea of Osiris is cer- 
tainly that of the sun, Phre ; and in Coptic Ave find Thre, 
milvus, a hawk. It occurs but once in the Old Testament ; 
and if we were at liberty to suppose that Thre signified a fe- 
male hawk, a male would be Phre, and very probably sometimes 
employed as Phonetic of the name of Osiris. One of the 
Hebrew names of the sun was Baal, and Bal in Coptic sig- 
nifies the eye. That hieroglyphic character, therefore, may 
have been Phonetic of Osiris ; and the sceptre typical either 
of Baal, lord, Nebo, lord, or Moloch, king, all names of the sun. 

xvn. Arueris is said to have been a twin brother of 
Osiris, the son of the Sun and Rhea. He was also denomi- 
nated the elder Horus, and regarded by some of the Greeks 
as identical with Apollo, while Apopis was also regarded as 
a brother of the sun. In spite of the uncertainty of etymo- 
logy, the temptation is irresistible to regard Arueris as 
formed from the Hebrew Aor-aor, light of light, or sun of 
suns, and Apopis as its corruption, from the ambiguity of the 
earliest Greek forms of Pi and Bho, in both instances not the 
brother of Osiris but Osiris himself. It is remarkable that 
a sort of ladder is the present hieroglyphic of the sun in 
China, the ancient being 3 which we find also in Egypt in 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 277 

the same sense. (Art. Egypt, Sup. Encyc. Brit. pp. 44, 45. 
and 57.) 

The essential parts of the name of Egypt seem to be the 
square and the wheel, signifying splendid land. La Croze 
gives Mares as a name of Upper Egypt, formed, there can be 
little doubt, from the native words Ma, place, and Re, the 
sun ; and Chemi and Chora as names of Lower Egypt. The 
former, Chemi, appears to be the Hebrew Cham or Ham, 
hot ("Ham, which is Egypt ") ; and the latter, the Persic 
Khur, the sun. The etymology of Egypt I conceive to be 
the indigenous words Ei, domus, and Koht (Sahidic), ignis ; 
i. e. house, or abode, of fire. All these words are allusive to 
their Sabaism or oldest system of religion, and worship of 
the sun and moon under the names of Osiris and Isis, and 
probably a hundred others, many of which are familiar to us. 
(Art. Egypt, p. 64.) 

xviii. My readers will, perhaps, expect that I shall not 
close this chapter without saying a few words as to the 
progress that has actually been made, and the future proba- 
bility we may reasonably calculate on of overcoming the 
difficulties of the Egyptian system of hieroglyphics. 

1. The whole number of hieroglyphical characters hitherto 
observed certainly does not exceed one thousand ; Cham- 
pollion computing them at 864, and Zoega at 958. The 
number of Chinese characters has been variously estimated at 
from 40,000 to 80,000, while their keys, or simple, or ele- 
mentary characters, amount only to 214. Arguing from 
analogy, the Egyptian hieroglyphics are incomparably too 
few to compose a system of real language, while they are too 
numerous to be keys only, unless we could discover some 
mode, by similar marks perpetually recurring, of dividing them 
into clusters or combinations, and assimilating them to the 
Chinese compound characters. 

2. All the arguments which tend to prove that the 
Egyptian hieroglyphics did not compose a real character 
which was the sign of things, tend indirectly to prove that 
they formed a Phonetic system which was the sign of sounds; 

T 3 



278 HIEROGLYPHICS. 

for they must have been either the one or the other, or we 
cannot understand how they were anything. But by merely 
proving that they were not the signs of things, we do not 
necessarily prove that they were letters, as they may have 
been Phonetic in another way, and have represented whole 
words and not the initial letters. 

3. Herodotus informs us that Mendes, in the language of 
Egypt, was the name both of the god Pan and of a goat. 
Whenever the figure of a goat, therefore, occurs in the hiero- 
glyphics, by pronouncing its name we pronounce at the same 
time the name of Pan. Phre was an Egyptian name of the 
sun, and so was Osiris ; and in Coptic we find Thre, a kite, 
which it is difficult to distinguish from a hawk, the bird of 
Osiris. If Thre signified a female hawk, the male would be 
Phre ; consequently, by pronouncing the name of the hiero- 
glyphical figure of the hawk, I pronounce, at the same time, 
one of the. names of Osiris, Phre, Again, the lion was one 
of the sacred animals of Egypt, and there was a city sacred 
to it which Strabo calls Leontopolis, the Egyptian name of 
which was Thmuis. The early Egyptians, like almost all the 
rest of mankind, were Sabians, sun or fire worshippers ; and 
in Coptic we find, side by side, the homophonous words Moue, 
splendour (the sun's), and Moui, lion. The figure of the 
animal, therefore, was Phonetic of the name of the god. 
Once more, there was in Egypt a city of Heliopolis, the in- 
digenous name of which was Ondibaki, from On, the sun, 
and Baki, city. Bude stones were from the earliest ages 
sacred to the sun, and so were images. On was the name of 
the sun ; Oni, written with Omega, signifies stone, and with 
Omicron, like or resembling. A stone or an image, therefore, 
in hieroglyphics, would be Phonetic of the name of the sun, 
and there can be little doubt that the religious character, 
both of the sacred animals and of many inanimate objects, 
was derived from this principle of similarity of name or play 
on words, which in the preceding part of the work I have 
distinguished by the name of Homonymy. 

4. We can carry this principle one step farther, and show 
the probability that in a compound hieroglyphic, consisting 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 279 

of two objects, both were Phonetic, and the names of both 
intended to be pronounced at length, and not merely the 
initial letters. Strabo mentions a city in Egypt of the name 
of Hermonthis : an eye dropping a tear is of frequent oc- 
currence in the hieroglyphic figures ; a tear in Coptic is 
Erme, and an eye Bal, and in Hebrew Baal was a name of 
the sun, and perhaps in ancient Egyptian also, and syno- 
nymous with On. We find a Hebrew and an Egyptian word 
combined in Balbec or Heliopolis, viz. Baal, the sun, and 
Baki, Coptic, city. Herm-On-this probably denoted that 
the city was sacred both to Hermes or Thoth, and Osiris or 
the sun ; and the eye and tear may have been Phonetic of 
Baal-Hermes. In the Old Testament, a city of the name of 
Baal-Hermon, occurs more than once. (Vide Gibbs's Gesenius 
in voce Baal.) 

5. Supposing the one thousand hieroglyphic figures to 
have been all letters, as Champollion is disposed to regard 
them, such an alphabet is almost as bad as none at all. The 
Coptic alphabet consists of thirty-two letters ; but of these, 
seven, Gamma, Delta, So, Zeta, Eta, Xi, and Psi, may almost 
be put out of the account, as so few Egyptian words commence 
with them. This will leave twenty-five effective letters, by 
which number, if we divide one thousand, we shall have forty 
forms of each letter, an amount which may confidently be 
pronounced to be unmanageable, except for proper names. 

6. Of these thousand hieroglyphic characters, Champollion 
fancies he has determined the Phonetic value of about one 
hundred and thirty-four ; but more than one-half appears to 
be purely conjectural ; so that we cannot be said to know 
more than about one-sixteenth part of the alphabet (Edin. 
Review, No. 116, p. 475. Klaproth, &C.); and what possi- 
bility is there of attaining a knowledge of the remainder, 
unless we meet with more Trilingual Inscriptions like that of 
Rosetta ? Is it not more probable that, instead of an alphabet 
of one thousand letters, the hieroglyphics compose a limited 
dictionary of one thousand words, which are to be interpreted 
not by initial letters, except in the single instance of proper 
names inclosed in a lozenge, but like those puzzles which 

T 4 



280 HIEKOGLYPHICS. 

amuse children, in which the pronoun 1 is expressed by the 
figure of an eye ; you, by a yew tree ; the relative ichich, by a 
witch riding on a broomstick ; the verb tea?*, by the figure 
of a tear ; and the noun love, by that of Cupid? If the ancient 
Egyptians were in possession of an alphabet at an early period, 
as I belieye they were, it is hardly possible that they should 
have perfected a system of real characters or signs of things, 
as they could have had no adequate motive to do so. If the 
whole thousand hieroglyphics are letters, there must be at 
least forty forms of each letter, a number which no human 
eye can discriminate, and no human memory retain ; and if 
they are sometimes letters and sometimes signs, sometimes an 
alphabetical and sometimes a real character, without any 
notice to inform us when they are one and when the other, 
nothing short of an immediate inspiration could enable the 
most gifted of the human race to make out six consecutive 
characters with the smallest approximation to truth, or even 
to probability. -j 



281 



CHAP. XXV. 

ON ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

" Th' invention all admired, and each how he 
To be th' inventor miss'd ; so easy 't seem'd 
Once found, which yet unfound, most would have thought 
Impossible." Paradise Lost, book vi. 

I. The origin of letters, like that of many other arts and 
inventions, is lost in the darkness of antiquity. We possess 
but little information on the subject, and of that little, the 
value is very much impaired by the ambiguity of the terms 
in which it is conveyed. 

The Egyptians ascribed the invention of writing, as well as 
of all the other arts, both ornamental and useful, to their god 
Thoth, or Hermes, while the Greeks attributed it to Orpheus. 
The first Hermes of the Egyptians appears to have been 
merely another name of Osiris, or the sun, the earliest god of 
almost all the nations of mankind, and accordingly comme- 
morated under one denomination or another, as the founder 
of civil society, and the inventor of agriculture and all the 
necessary arts.^Tn many instances, the Egyptian Hermes ap- 
pears to me merely a personification of the hand, in their OAvn 
language Tot, which, as the principal instrument in executing 
all mechanical contrivances, is said, by a slight metonomy, to 
have been the inventor of them. The Greeks, treading in the 
steps of the Egyptians, personified both the hand and fingers, 
and ascribed to the Cheirogasteres and Dactyli, mentioned by 
Strabo and Pausanias, nearly the same exploits as the latter 
referred to their Thoth, or Tot. If we do not regard Orpheus 
as the sole inventor of letters, it appears to me that it would 
be equally ungrateful and untrue to deny that he had any- 
thing to do with it, as his name is formed from the Arabic 
word Harf, a letter of the alphabet with a Greek termination, 
Orpheus. Herodotus, among other strange circumstances, con- 



282 ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

nected with Abaris, the civiliser of Scythia, informs us that 
he made the grand tour of the earth without eating or drink- 
ing, and that his vehicle, or mode of conveyance, was an arrow. 
Part of the story has my entire assent ; the other part I must 
demur to, and my faith, as to his not eating, is quite equal to 
my scepticism as to his not drinking ; as, if I am not much 
mistaken, he was of an extremely thirsty nature ; as I take 
Abaris to be merely the Latin word Jubar, a sun-beam, 
written in the Oriental mode Aibar, Abaris ; as Iran, the name 
of ancient Persia, is written Airan. Both Orpheus and 
Abaris are merely the creatures of etymology, the shadow of 
a shade, like almost the whole body of the Greek mythology ; 
and I venture confidently to predict that, in proportion to our 
real progress in philology, almost all that portion of Greek 
history which is prior to the age of Herodotus will disappear, 
and leave hardly a trace of its having existed. 

. x£ But whatever may have been the period of the origin of 
alphabetical writing, it appears at any rate to have been prior 
to that in which the Pentateuch was written. In Exodus, 
xxviii. 9. Moses is directed to write the names of the children 
of Israel on two onyx stones. The Hebrew word Phathach, 
which is rendered in the Septuagint by Glupho, and very 
properly translated in the English version by Grave, is am- 
biguous, as such writing was not necessarily alphabetical. The 
names of the children of Israel might have been and perhaps 
were written precisely in the same way as those of Ptolemy 
and Berenice in the Rosetta Inscription. Again, in the 36th 
verse of the same chapter, he is directed to write " holiness to 
the Lord " upon a plate of pure gold. The same Hebrew word 
occurs, which is rendered in the Septuagint by Ektupoo, 
effingo, and by the English translators Grave ; and the writing 
might still have been hieroglyphical ; but in the account of the 
tables of stone, Exodus, xxxii. 15, 16. the Hebrew word Cha- 
thab is made use of in the original, Grapho in the Septuagint, 
and Write in the English version. In Deuteronomy, xxviii. 
58. we read, "If thou wilt not observe to do all the words 
of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest 



ALPHABETICAL CHAKACTERS. 283 

fear this glorious and fearful name of the Lord thy God ; " 
— in the Hebrew Chathab and Saipher, in the Greek Grapho 
and Biblios, — in both languages the most literal words that 
could have been used for writing and a book ; and though 
books may have been and probably were written by the 
Egyptians in the hieroglyphical or at any rate in the en- 
chorial character, in which they may have been imitated by 
the Israelites, the meaning intended to be conveyed in the 
above passages clearly is, that the characters or letters em- 
ployed were alphabetical, and that the writing was essentially 
the same as that which we should now denominate such. 

in. We have seen that the progress of the modes of writ- 
ing which were not alphabetic consisted in — ?1, Simple picture 
writing, or an attempt to preserve the memory of events by re- 
presenting them just as they happened. — 2. As this was appli- 
cable solely to visible and external objects, there were still no 
means of depicting the operations of the spiritual part of man, of 
conveying an idea of the thoughts of the mind and the feel- 
ings of the heart, of denoting that which was unseen and im- 
palpable, as well as that which was gross and material. As 
the information was still addressed to the eye, an attempt was 
made to convey some idea of qualities and moral relations, by 
depicting some objects in which the quality intended to be 
described was supposed to be peculiarly inherent, or to exist 
in a very strong degree. Ingratitude was denoted by a viper, 
imprudence by a fly, wisdom by an ant, victory by a hawk; and 
it is probable that the spectator was warned by some sign, quite 
as intelligible as the Cartouche, within which we find proper 
names inscribed, that the literal system of picture writing was 
departed from, and that a metaphorical and mystic meaning 
only was to be sought after. — 3. As the drawing or repre- 
senting material objects, however rudely, was found to occupy 
too much time, and to be altogether inapplicable to the com- 
mon purposes of life, it was gradually abridged or simplified, 
and various combinations of strokes supplied the place of 
figures. As this mode of writing was both more easy, and 
applicable to a greater variety of purposes, than the hierogly- 



284 ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

phical or sacred, it appears to have been distinguished by the 
name of demotic or popular. 

iv. The Mexicans do not seem to have advanced beyond 
mere picture writing, in which they attempted, but very un- 
successfully, to transmit to future times the annals of their 
country. To this historical painting, of which we find 
many specimens in Egypt, that ingenious people superadded 
hieroglyphics strictly speaking, or a system in which they at- 
tempted to convey a knowledge of the mysteries of religion, 
the doctrines of philosophy, the laws of nature, and the prin- 
ciples of government, by certain combinations of visible, ma- 
terial objects, which, proceeding on principles of which we are 
now totally ignorant, and which I believe have never been 
understood by any person not an Egyptian, became the types 
of the invisible and the unknown. The system which had its 
origin in Egypt, was perfected in China, where picture writ- 
ing has entirely disappeared ; the figures of animals, plants, 
and all other external objects being in every instance repre- 
sented by combinations of lines more or less complex. All 
these combinations are susceptible of being analysed or resolved 
into two hundred and fourteen keys, and the system of the 
Chinese has so little of mystery, and proceeds on principles so 
clear and intelligible, that many Englishmen have made them- 
selves perfectly masters of the language, and been able to read 
it with certainty, facility, and dispatch. I have stated my 
reasons in the preceding chapter for believing that the hiero- 
glyphical system was never perfected in Egypt, because they 
were in possession of an alphabet from a very early period ; 
but whether that was the case or not, most certainly the 
specimens of Egyptian hierogly phical wisdom, whether trans- 
mitted to us by the Greeks, or brought to light within the last 
few years, ought to remind us of a truth, which we are per- 
petually disposed to forget, that we live in the old age of the 
world, and that the further back we travel the nearer we ap- 
proach to its infancy ; and in proportion as we find grounds for 
believing that the great body of Egyptian knowledge is lost 
to us for ever, the worthless quality of that which has been 



ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 285 

discovered tends to remove all acute anxiety about that which 
remains behind. 

v. Hieroglyphical writing has nothing in common with 
alphabetical, or that is likely to lead to it ; as they are radi- 
cally different in their nature, and proceed on essentially 
contrary principles. The first is the immediate sign or re- 
presentative of things ; the second of sounds. The first, so 
far as it consists of picture writing, is a natural language, 
and will be universally understood ; the second is altogether 
arbitrary, and will be understood no farther than mankind 
are agreed as to the names or sounds by which they distin- 
guish different objects. The simplification of hieroglyphical 
writing, or the substitution of various combinations of lines 
for the drawings or representations of external objects, was 
a circumstance so far from leading to an alphabet, that it 
formed an additional obstacle in its way ; for in proportion as 
hieroglyphical knowledge was rendered applicable to the 
common purposes of life, in the same degree was that pres- 
sure of necessity removed, which in every age and country 
has been found to stimulate most powerfully the inventive 
faculty. Various hypotheses have been formed by specula- 
tive writers, to account for the origin and form of alpha- 
betical characters. Some have supposed that the classes of 
letters, distinguished by the name of Linguals, Labials, 
Nasals, Dentals, and Gutturals, were originally rude repre- 
sentations of the different organs chiefly instrumental in 
giving utterance to them. Others (among whom is Mon- 
sieur Court de Gebelin, in his " Monde Primitif," an ingenious 
but frequently an extremely fanciful writer,) have taken a 
great deal of pains to prove that the forms of the letters of 
many of the most ancient alphabets we are acquainted with, 
were borrowed from the various members of the human 
body. Supposing him, however, to have proved this as 
completely as he appears to think he has done, which many 
will be disposed to deny, very little addition is made to our 
knowledge of the subject, — the great difficulty being, not to 
account for the forms of the letters, (a matter of very subor- 



28G ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

dinate importance, and apparently of little difficulty, as we 
have proofs that it has been effected in five hundred ways,) 
but to ascertain what gave origin to the principle of the 
invention of the letters themselves, as the signs or represen- 
tatives of the tones of the human voice employed in speak- 
ing. The existence of an alphabet necessarily supposes that 
somebody must have remarked and discriminated those primi- 
tive or elementary sounds, which, by their combination, 
compose the body of every language, and into which every 
language is susceptible of being analysed ; that he must have 
observed that they were capable of being reduced to a very 
moderate number, — to fourteen, the amount of the Oighuror 
oldest Tartaric alphabet, — to sixteen, that of the ancient 
Greek, — to twenty-four, that of the Roman, — or to thirty- 
two, that of the Persic and Egyptian alphabets ; and that the 
idea must have occurred to him of approjoriating a distinct 
character or letter as the representative or exponent of 
every elementary sound. This was the first step ; but the 
second was hardly less difficult, as he must have remarked 
further that the words which he himself and those around 
him were in the habit of employing, as the names of external 
material objects, or in describing the invisible world within, 
their thoughts, opinions, reflections, and feelings, were not 
simple or elementary sounds, but combinations or articula- 
tions comprising sometimes more and sometimes fewer of 
them ; and he must have perceived further, that by arrang- 
ing the characters or letters which were the signs of those 
primitive sounds in the order in which they occurred in 
speaking, he should form, in the first instance, distinct words; 
that the union of words would compose sentences, of sen- 
tences periods ; and that, by the multiplication of the latter, 
every discourse, however long, might be fully represented ; 
and that, by the law of the association of ideas, written 
characters presented to the eyes would revive or recall the 
spoken sounds which had entered the ears, and become 
a medium of recording and transmitting to the latest pos- 
terity the glowing declamation of the orator, or the inspired 
strains of the poet. We are so familiar with alphabetical 



ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 287 

writing, that it appears to us quite as natural, and as much 
a matter of course, as speech itself, and it is only by a 
difficult process of reasoning that we can at all realize to 
our minds the enormous difficulties which were to be en- 
countered, and the incomparable simplicity, beauty, and 
universality of the means by which they were overcome, 
alphabetical writing being equally applicable to any actual 
language that has ever been spoken, or to any conceivable 
one that can ever be formed ; and it is not without reason 
that one of the greatest and most eloquent philosophers of 
the ancient world finely observed, " Summas sapientise fuisse 
sonos vocis qui infiniti videbantur, paucis literarum notis 
terminavisse." (Cicero. Tusculanar. lib. 1. c. 26.) 

VI. Hieroglyphical writing is so far from being a step to 
alphabetical, that in whatever country we find the former 
completely matured and perfected, we shall discover at the 
same time that the latter is never had recourse to but from 
necessity, and that the degree of the use is measured by the 
extent of the necessity. This is the case in China, where 
Phonetic characters appear to be very little employed, ex- 
cept to describe the proper names of persons and places. 
This was the case also in Egypt, as we have seen. When- 
ever a proper name occurred in their hieroglyphic writing, 
the mode by which they represented it was to draw as many 
objects as the letters of which it was composed, taking care 
that the name of each object in the Egyptian language should 
begin with the letter wanted. In writing Ptolemy, for in- 
stance, they set down in succession pictures of objects begin- 
ning with the letters P, T, and O, &c; at the same time giving 
notice to the reader, by inclosing this particular cluster of ob- 
jects within a cartouche or belt, that they deviated from 
their ordinary system of writing, and that in this instance it 
was no longer real but Phonetic or vocal, and that the 
names of the objects were first to be pronounced, and the 
initial letters, in the second place, combined to form a word. 
It has been conjectured that this mode of writing may have 
suggested the idea, and gradually led to the formation of an 



288 ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

alphabet. To me however, on the contrary, the practice of it 
clearly infers, and incontestably proves, the prior existence of 
alphabetical writing, of which this partial Phonetic waiting 
was a consequence, and not a cause. In many respects 
there is a close analogy between the science of chemistry 
and the art of alphabetical writing, and they differ only as 
to the subjects or materials on which they are employed. 
The object of the former is to analyse or resolve all the 
material substances in nature into those simple or elementary 
bodies which are incapable of further decomposition, and to 
ascertain, in the second place, all the new combinations which 
those simple substances are capable of forming, and the 
qualities or properties which are the result of their mutual 
action. When Dr. Thompson published the fourth edition 
of his system of chemistry, thirty years ago, those simple sub- 
stances were supposed to amount to about forty-eight ; and 
a person totally ignorant of chemistry probably would not be 
more surprised at being told that all the objects he beholds, — 
animal, vegetable, and mineral, — all the various matter which 
composes the great fabric of nature, is susceptible of being 
analysed into forty-eight simple bodies, than a person totally 
ignorant of grammar would be, at being told that the 44,000 
words contained in Scapula's Greek Lexicon are susceptible 
of being analysed into sixteen letters, or elementary sounds, 
perpetually recurring, and variously combined. To form an 
alphabet, is to apply the principles of chemical analysis to 
language, — to make the ear perform at once the office of 
acids, and alkalis, of crucibles, and galvanic batteries, on the 
materials supplied by the tongue, — to continue the process 
until we arrive at those simple or elementary sounds which 
are incapable of further division, — to give each a distinct 
name, and denote it by an appropriate character; and this 
task, laborious and gigantic as it appears, must have been per- 
formed by the being whom Homer finely describes as articulate 
speaking man. To invent sixteen or sixty forms of letters 
was a mere trifle, not worth naming, compared with what has 
been achieved by human ingenuity ; but to discover that 
speech in all its varieties consisted of about sixteen elemen- 



ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 289 

tary sounds perpetually recurring, and infinitely diversified, 
to conceive of the possibility of finding characters to express 
each of these sounds, and to perceive clearly, that by arrang- 
ing those characters in the order of the sounds they repre- 
sented, we should speak to the eye the language of the ear, 
and fix the vibrations of the air in imperishable characters, 
was at once the most difficult and desirable feat which the 
powers of the human mind have ever accomplished. I want 
to convey some idea of the sound of one of the names of the 
Egyptian god Pan, and there is no alphabet. If I draw a 
goat, the name of which was Mendes, and can succeed in 
making the reader understand by any conventional sign, that 
he is now to pronounce the word, and not to look for a re- 
condite or mystic meaning, my object is accomplished. Again, 
I want to express the sound of a particular name of the sun. 
That luminary was worshipped under the name of Baal by 
the Canaanites, and very probably by the Egyptians. If. it 
was so, by drawing the figure of an eye, in Coptic Bal, and 
conveying an intimation that it is to be pronounced, I very 
nearly accomplish my object. But I want to convey an idea 
of the sound of the word Ptolemy, and no one or two ob- 
jects are to be found, the Egyptian names of which, pro- 
nounced aloud, will give anything like the sound. How am 
I to proceed ? There is or there is not an alphabet in Egypt. 
If there is not, I am just as capable of resolving the word 
Ptolemy into its simple or elementary sounds, as a person 
ignorant of the first principles of chemistry is of analysing a 
compound substance ; for in the chemistry of language to 
analyse is to spell, and to spell a word is to recapitulate the 
elementary sounds of which it is composed, calling each by 
its appropriate name. But previously to the invention of 
letters, I am ignorant of the interesting fact, that all the 
words of every language are susceptible of analysis into 
a few sounds ; or if I knew those sounds I could not describe 
them for want of appropriate names, to give which is to 
form an alphabet, a task before it is engaged in, apparently 
the most hopeless of human undertakings, and after it is 
accomplished the noblest of human triumphs. On the sup- 

u 



290 ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

position that there is an alphabet in Egypt, and that its use 
is familiar, I analyse the word Ptolemy into its letters or 
component parts, and by drawing objects, the names of which 
begin with those letters, and arranging them in a proper 
order, I obtain a sort of acrostic capable of representing, in 
an imperfect way, the sound of the word Ptolemy. Should 
it be objected that the Chinese, without having any alphabet 
of their own, used phonetic hieroglyphics to a considerable 
extent, I reply, that though they possessed no alphabet, the 
principle on which alphabets were formed was probably 
familiar to them from a very remote antiquity, from their in- 
tercourse with India, where the Sanskrit alphabet certainly 
appears to be among the oldest in existence. 

vii. As the history of Hieroglyphical Writing throws so 
little light on the origin of Alphabetical Writing, and as the 
principle on which they proceed is so essentially different, 
the first being the sign of things, directly and immediately, 
and the second indirectly and through the medium of sounds 
and words, we must look for information in some other 
quarter. No one can have been very conversant with the 
authors of Greece, without remarking the extreme, and as it 
appears to us the extravagant importance which they seem 
to have attached to music. According to them, it was one 
of the chief means, or instruments, employed in the civili- 
sation of mankind ; and among the qualifications of Linus, 
Orpheus, Musseus, Thamyris, Amphion, and Pythagoras, 
their profound knowledge of music is never forgotten. 

" Silvestres homines sacer interpresque Deorum, 
Casdibus et victu foedo deterruit Orpheus ; 
Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres, rabidosque leones : 
Dictus et Amphion, Thebanas conditor arcis, 
Saxa movere sono testudinis, et prece blanda 
Ducere quo vellet. Fuit haec sapientia quondam, 
Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis ; 
Concubitu prohibere vago ; dare jura maritis ; 
Oppida moliri ; leges incidere ligno : 
Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque 
Carminibus venit." * Hor. Ars Poet. v. 391. 

* " The wood-born race of men when Orpheus tamed, 
From acorns and from mutual blood reclaim'd, 



ALPHABETICAL CHAKACTERS. 291 

viii. A remote hint, a faint glimmering of light, appears 
to me to be thrown on the origin of alphabetical characters 
in the following passage from Enfield's History of Philosophy, 
which I extract literally. " Some improvement, however, 
the art of music received from the monks of this period (the 
eleventh century). Guido Aretine, a Benedictine, acquired 
great fame by expressing the musical notes in a new scale 
(Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La,) in order to facilitate the learning 
of this art. He is said to have taken the words from a 
hymn of Paulus Diaconus on John Baptist. 

UT queant laxis RE sonare fibris 
MI ra gestorum FA muli tuorum, 
SO lve pollutis LA biis reatum, 

Sancte Joannes. 

He made this invention public in his Micrologus, or two 

books De Musica. After all, this invention was no very 

material improvement upon the ancients ; for before Guido 

the musical scale had twenty notes, and the octaves 

WERE AS WELL DISTINGUISHED AMONG THE EGYPTIANS 

by seven vowels, or by the method which Pope Gregory 
introduced, the use of the first seven letters of the alphabet." 
(Enfield, vol. ii. p. 349.) 

ix. Although this passage does not mention at what 
period the Egyptians made use of seven vowels for the 
purpose of musical notation, and although it should be found 
impossible to procure any minute and definite information 
on the subject, as there are few things respecting which we 
know so little as the music of the ancients, I have no 
hesitation in expressing my belief that Alphabetical Writing 
had its origin in music, and that the first and very earliest 

This priest divine was fabled to assuage 
The tiger's fierceness and the lion's rage : 
Thus rose the Theban wall ; Amphion's lyre 
And soothing voice the list'ning stones inspire. 
Poetic wisdom mark'd with happy mean 
Public and private, sacred and profane ; 
The wand'ring joys of lawless love suppress'd; 
With equal rites the wedded couple bless'd ; 
Plann'd future towns, and instituted laws : 
So verse became divine, and poets gain'd applause." 
u 2 



202 ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 

letters were musical notes. What does the formation of an 
alphabet imply, and in what does it principally consist? 
Must not all the tones of the human voice be remarked, 
distinguished, and remembered? The most familiar are 
perpetually occurring in conversation, and the aggregate 
amount of the whole composes what we denominate speech ; 
and the fact is now perfectly familiar to us, that most 
languages are susceptible of being analysed into about sixteen 
perpetually recurring sounds, which may be expressed by 
sixteen letters ; for few alphabets, as I have already remarked, 
contain more than that number of real letters, or the signs 
of elementary sounds ; all the rest being merely the signs of 
those signs or contractions in writing. When all the tones 
of the human voice had been observed and discriminated, the 
great difficulty and indeed almost the only serious one, in 
the formation of an alphabet, was overcome ; for the mere 
figure of the letters is a trifle and a matter of perfect 
indifference. The principle on which an alphabet proceeds, 
is, that human speech is susceptible of being analysed into 
a comparatively small number of elementary sounds; the 
great task and Herculean labour consists in the analysis 
itself. When that analysis was perfected by the Egyptians, 
or whoever were the inventors of letters, and when each 
sound was denoted by' a distinct character, though the 
inventors themselves may have been principally or solely 
anxious about collecting materials to form the basis of a 
theory of music, it is quite certain that they had accom- 
plished at the same time one of the most powerful means of 
human improvement, the ability of constructing an alphabet. 
These characters may have been regarded by the inventor 
as musical notes ; but to him who was first conscious of the 
fact, that, by arranging them in the order in which the 
sounds of which they were the representatives occurred in 
conversation, they formed words and sentences, they became 
alphabetical characters. 

x. Speech may be regarded as natural music, and music 
as artificial speech. Some voices and some languages 



ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 293 

are said to be musical, and some the contrary. Prose 
has its music as well as verse, though the laws by which 
it is regulated are few, and perhaps not very susceptible 
of being defined ; and from prose we ascend gradually 
through the recitative of the Italian Opera, the blank verse 
of English Tragedy, the rhymed couplets of French, until 
we arrive at the Greek choral ode in which the time of 
every syllable was positively fixed and prescribed, not so 
much perhaps from choice as necessity, as Greek plays were 
always recited with a musical accompaniment, and in all the 
lyrical parts the actor was as strictly a singer as at the 
Italian Opera, a performance incomparably more analogous 
to ancient tragedy than any play ever exhibited at Covent 
Garden or Drury Lane. " Of all sounds," says Dr. Beattie 
in his elegant essay on Poetry and Music, " that which makes 
its way most directly to the human heart is the human 
voice ; and those instruments that approach nearest to it are 
in expression the most pathetic, and in tone the most perfect. 
The notes of a man's voice, well tuned and well managed, 
have a mellowness, variety, and energy beyond those of any 
instrument ; and a fine female voice, modulated by sensibility, 
is beyond comparison the sweetest and most melting sound 
in art or nature." (Page 141. 8vo edition.) ^ 



u 3 



294 



CHAP. XXVI. 



ON LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 



" Causas rerum naturalium non plures admitti debere quam qua? et verae sint, 
et earum phaenominis explicandis sufficiant." — Newton. 



i. The history of language may be divided into two parts, — 

1. That which is purely conjectural, and respecting which 
our present experience furnishes us with no certain data from 
which to reason. 

2. That to which the method of Inductive Reasoning is 
applicable from the existence of well-ascertained and clearly- 
defined facts. 

The first may be regarded as exhausted, the second as 
hardly commenced. The utmost that we propose to our- 
selves, under the first division of the subject, is to be able to 
say, we find such and such contrivances actually existing in 
various languages, and they were probably attained by such 
and such successive steps. We find mankind advanced thus 
far on the journey of knowledge, and it is likely that they 
reached that point by following such and such paths. In 
the second instance, beginning with the rudest specimens of 
language actually existing, we propose to ourselves to trace 
historically, if possible, every successive addition, until we have 
accounted for all the parts of speech in the languages the 
most complex, the most copious, the most artificial, and the 
most refined — the Sanskrit, the Greek, the Latin, and the 
Arabic. 

II. The indifferent success with which the philosophy of 
language has been hitherto treated, and the inconsiderable 
advance that has been actually made, must induce us at 
least to suspect that there must have been something radically 
erroneous in the course that has been pursued ; nor is it diffi- 



LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 295 

cult to point out some among the numerous causes of failure. 
A very large proportion of our present stock of know- 
ledge was bequeathed to us by the Greeks and Romans, to 
whom we have incurred the obligation of a heavy debt of 
gratitude. It is difficult to admire without admiring indis- 
criminately ; and, together with many opinions of those en- 
lightened and polished people, w T e have imbibed many of 
their most noxious and inveterate prejudices; one of the 
worst of which was, to persist in regarding all the rest of 
mankind as barbarians, as compared with themselves. This 
narrow feeling necessarily led to a systematic indifference, or 
rather contempt, for their languages, which prevailed to so 
great an extent, that they have transmitted us no specimens 
of them, except a scanty gleaning of single words, and those 
for the most part the proper names of persons or places, 
which, few as they are, are still of inestimable value in en- 
abling us to trace the affiliations and connections of families and 
nations, in the absence of all direct historical evidence. A 
worse effect still has been, that, since the revival of letters, 
philologists, imitating the example of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, have drawn all their materials, and founded all their 
reasonings, on the languages of Greece and Rome; of all 
others the least suitable for the purpose, as they are uni- 
versally allowed to be the most elegant and harmonious 
the world has ever seen, and they are the most polished, 
precisely because they have been the most carefully culti- 
vated and elaborated, or, in other words, changed from their 
primitive form, by the rejection of harsh and unpronounceable 
sounds, by the transposition of letters, by the introduction of 
superfluous vowels for the sake of euphony in some instances, 
and of redundant consonants to prevent the concourse of 
vowels in others, contrivances which in many cases have 
so totally changed the original form of the words, as to set 
all the efforts of the etymologist at defiance. The Greek 
and Roman languages exhibit the appearance of a beautiful 
and magnificent fabric, of which it is difficult to admire too 
much the adaptation of the different parts, or the harmonious 
effect of the whole ; but every vestige of the scaffolding has 

u 4 



296 LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 

been carefully removed, and every mark it left sedulously 
filled up and obliterated; but as it is the object of the 
philosophy of language to trace it from its earliest and most 
imperfect rudiments, step by step, until it has attained its 
ultimate refinements, it must be obvious to the philologist 
at a glance, that the Greek and Latin are not the most 
proper for his purpose, and will not enable him to attain the 
end he has in view. 

III. It may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that 
writers on the subject of language have not hitherto made 
the most of the materials to which they have access. We 
cannot go back to the infancy of the human race in the 
abstract, because our historical authorities do not reach more 
than five or six hundred years beyond the Christian era. 
We can form no idea of the language spoken in Eden, or 
of the precise effects produced by the perturbation of lan- 
guage on the plains of Shinar, because the authority from 
which we derive our knowledge of the facts contains not 
a word m the way of explanation. But the narrations of 
voyagers and travellers exhibit to us various political societies 
in every state of growth, from infancy to decrepitude, and in 
every stage of civilisation, from the rudest barbarism to the 
most perfect refinement. We have no specimen of the 
primitive language of man ; but we do possees specimens 
more or less copious of the greater part of the known lan- 
guages spoken by the human race, which might probably, in 
every instance, have been less imperfect, if the collectors and 
reporters had been better qualified to observe, and fully 
aware of the highly important purposes to which their 
materials might be made available. Some of these lanffua^es 
appear to be as barbarous as the natives by whom they are 
spoken, and to be adapted to their low state of civilisation, 
whence we cannot but draw a conclusion, that if speech be 
not a human invention, at any rate the improvements of 
speech are the effect of human ingenuity, and keep pace with 
the general advancement of knowledge, and the progress of 
the human mind. 



LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 297 

iv. If we dismiss, however, all the conclusions of conjec- 
ture, and resort to the dictates of experience, the first question 
that presents itself is, in what manner is the use of language 
actually acquired ? and I believe the true and only answer 
will be from Imitation. Those born quite deaf are invariably 
dumb, though their intellectual powers are in other respects 
quite sound and perfect ; unless, therefore, the human facul- 
ties were essentially different from what we experience them 
to be, the first man, having had no model to imitate, could 
not have spoken at all ; and if they were essentially different, 
our present condition supplies us with no materials from 
which to reason either accurately or conclusively. 

The origin of language is involved in the same difficulties 
as the origin of man himself, or the origin of the world he 
inhabits; and I know not how they can be solved but by 
the supposition, that the same beneficent Providence which 
supports individuals is exerted for the preservation of the 
species ; that the powers and faculties of man are, in every 
instance, exactly adapted to the circumstances in which he is 
placed; that instincts which were necessary for his well- 
being and preservation in a solitary state were gradually 
withdrawn with the progress of that society to which his 
lot was ultimately destined, as the senses of savages are said 
to become less acute with the advance of civilization ; and 
that the power of inventing and forming languages ceased 
with the necessity for its exertion, as those passages in the 
heart which are necessary for carrying on the circulation of 
the blood in the foetus are closed when it attains a more 
advanced state of existence, in circumstances altogether new 
and different. (Paley's Nat. Theol. p. 260.) 

v. Herodotus relates a curious experiment on the subject 
of language, made by the ancient Egyptians, in the reign of 
Psammetichus. Doubts had arisen whether the Egyptians 
or the Phrygians were the more ancient people, and the king 
determined to bring the matter to a speedy and decisive 
issue. Eor this purpose, he had recourse to a contrivance, 
which would not have occurred to every body. He com- 



298 LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 

rnitted two new-born infants to the custody of a shepherd, 
with particular directions never to utter a word in their 
presence, but to conduct goats to them at proper intervals, 
whose milk they might suck. This went on for two years, 
when one day, on opening the door of their apartment, the 
children eagerly extended their arms to him, as if in the act 
of supplication, and pronounced the word Becos. He took 
no notice of the circumstance at first, but after it had oc- 
curred again and again, he communicated it to the king, and 
brought the children into his presence, where they continued 
to repeat the same word. Psammetichus, after very diligent 
inquiry, ascertained, to his entire satisfaction, that the word 
Becos was the name of bread among the Phrygians, and to 
them the palm was assigned of superior antiquity over the 
Egyptians. The story, if true, proves a great deal more, 
and establishes beyond all controversy the doctrine of innate 
ideas, against which some have supposed Locke to argue so 
triumphantly in the first book of his essay, as the two infants 
not only clearly intimated that they wished to have some 
bread with their milk, but called that most desirable article 
by its appropriate name, though, as they were Egyptians, 
their fancy for speaking in Phrygian is not a little remark- 
able. It is equally difficult to account for the origin of the 
idea in their minds, or of the word on their tongues, and 
perhaps some who suspect the truth of the story, will still 
incline to doubt if the Phrygian is the oldest of all languages, 
and the doctrine of innate ideas one of the soundest in mental 
philosophy. Dr. Beattie, in his Theory of Language, says, it 
was once a vulgar notion, that a person, brought up from in- 
fancy without hearing any language, would of himself speak 
Hebrew ; a prejudice for which it is difficult to assign any 
other reason, than that as the oldest traditions respecting the 
origin of mankind, received by Jews and Christians, are 
written in Hebrew, therefore the Hebrew itself must be the 
oldest language, — a proposition the logic of which is not very 
obvious, as the same mode of reasoning would prove the 
Sanskrit to be the oldest to the Hindus, and the Arabic to 



LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 299 

the Arabians ; as the Vedas, Puranas, and Koran are written 
in those two languages. 

vi. Some of the leading difficulties connected with the 
origin of language are very clearly stated by Rousseau in 
the following passage from his " Discours sur l'Origine et les 
Fondemens de l'lnegalite* parmi les Homines." " If language," 
says he, " be the result of human convention, and if words be 
essential to the exercise of thought, language would appear to 
be necessary for the invention of language. But when, by 
means which I cannot conceive, our new grammarians began 
to extend their ideas, and to generalise their words, their ig- 
norance must have confined them within very narrow bounds. 
How, for example, could they imagine or comprehend such 
words as matter, mind, substance, mode, figure, motion; since 
our philosophers, who have so long made use of them, scarcely 
understand them, and since the ideas attached to them, being 
purely metaphysical, can have no model in nature ? 

" I stop at these first steps," continues Rousseau, " and en- 
treat my judges to pause, and consider the distance between 
the easiest part of language, the invention of physical sub- 
stantives, and the power of expressing all the thoughts of 
man, so as to speak in public, and influence society. I en- 
treat them to reflect upon the time and knowledge it must 
have required to discover numbers, abstract words, aorists, 
and all the tenses of verbs, particles, syntax, the art of con- 
necting propositions and arguments, and how to form the 
whole logic of discourse. As for myself, alarmed at these 
multiplying difficulties, and convinced of the almost de- 
monstrable impossibility of language having been formed 
and established by means merely human, I leave to others 
the discussion of the problem 'Whether a society already 
formed was more necessary for the institution of language, 
or a language already invented for the establishment of 
society ? ' " (Dugald Stewart, Pre. Dis. to Enc. Brit. vol. v. 
p. 120.) 

vii. The difficulties of the subject, as stated by Rousseau, 
are greatly exaggerated, from the circumstance of his having 



300 LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 

confounded the artificial classification and arbitrary divisions 
of language, as established by grammarians, with the natural 
and essential parts of language itself. 

Language, so far as regards the philologist, may be ar- 
ranged under four leading classes or divisions, one or the 
other of which will include everything he can possibly have 
to say on the subject. 

1. Etymology, or that branch of language which treats of 
the derivation of words. Had there been but one language 
in the world, this branch of it would have had no existence ; 
as to have recourse to etymology is to seek for the significa- 
tion of a word in another, and if possible its original lan- 
guage, the use of which is altogether arbitrary in our own. 
The Greeks and Romans, who were perhaps the most finished 
and faultless writers the world has ever seen, were also the 
very worst etymologists, simply from the circumstance of 
their knowing no language but their own, — a disqualification 
which ought to have prevented them from entering on the 
task in limine. Their etymologies are sometimes utterly 
ridiculous, generally quite unfounded, and never satis- 
factory. 

2. Prosody, which treats of the quantity of syllables, their 
combinations into feet, and the arrangement of the feet in 
lines, so as to form regular metres. What is usually under- 
stood by the term prosody, as a body or collection of laws, by 
means of which the length or shortness of every syllable in 
the language is fixed and determined, is almost peculiar to 
the Greek and Latin, and has nothing analogous in the lan- 
guages of modern Europe, in which accented and unaccented 
syllables are very conspicuous, but in which long and short, 
in the sense in which those words were used by the Greeks 
and Romans, can hardly be said to have any existence. 
Prosody, therefore, in this sense, is not an essential but 
extraneous part of language, not a necessary but a luxury, 
and therefore does not naturally form an ingredient in philo- 
sophical grammar. 

3. Inflexion, which treats of the various methods of modi- 
fying the meaning of that class of words denominated by 



LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 301 

grammarians declinable, which are the Article, Noun, Pro- 
noun, Adjective, Verb, and Participle. Inflexion may take 
place, either in the beginning, the middle, or the end of a 
word, or, in other words, may be accomplished by prefixes 
or augments as in the Greek verbs, by infixes as in the 
Egyptian nouns, or by affixes or terminations as in almost 
the whole class of declinable Latin words. Almost all these 
changes are effected in the languages of modern Europe by 
means of Particles, and therefore cannot be regarded as 
essential parts of philosophical or general grammar. 

4. Syntax, which is conversant with the laws which 
determine the formation of sentences, and their arrangement 
in periods, so as to constitute discourse or composition. 
Syntax decides on the position or collocation in the sentence 
of w T ords of every class, and consequently of the indeclinable 
Prepositions, Adverbs, Conjunctions, and Interjections, as 
well as of the declinable Articles, Nouns, Pronouns, Adjec- 
tives, Verbs, and Participles. In the Hebrew, the Arabic, 
and most of the languages of modern Europe, the Syntax 
occupies but a few pages, in the Greek and Latin a much 
more considerable space ; but it will not require a very co- 
pious notice in a treatise on general grammar. 

viii. If we take a comprehensive survey of the grammati- 
cal contrivances of some of the oldest written languages, and 
retrench all those which any particular language is destitute 
of, we shall have a clearer idea of what really are the essen- 
tial ingredients, or component parts of language in general, 
which is the whole that philosophical grammar proposes to 
itself to give an account of. For instance, the Greek Verb 
has two Futures and two Aorists in the Indicative Mode ; 
the Sanskrit two Futures and three Preterites, and the 
Egyptian Verb three Futures ; but the Hebrew, the Arabic, 
and the whole class of Shemitic languages have only two 
tenses in the Indicative, the Preter and the Future. As 
these, therefore, are all that are absolutely essential, it follows, 
as a matter of course, that all the rest in every other lan- 
guage are redundant, not indeed with reference to that par- 



302 LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 

ticular language, but so far as the actual wants of the species 
are concerned. 

ix. Again, as to Moods, in the Greek we have the Indica- 
tive, the Imperative, the Optative, the Subjunctive, and the 
Infinitive. For the Optative and Subjunctive, the Sanskrit 
substitutes a Potential, a Precative, and a Conditional. The 
Latin rejected the Greek Optative, or rather did not distin- 
guish it from the Subjunctive, while it retained the name of 
the Potential like the Sanskrit, without however giving it a 
distinct form from the Subjunctive. The Hebrew has but 
three Moods, the Indicative, the Imperative, and the Infini- 
tive ; and as all the purposes of language have been actually 
answered by these three, it follows that all the others 
in every language might have been dispensed with. 

x. Once more as to Voices, in the Greek we find three, the 
Active, Passive, and Middle ; the Sanskrit has but two, the 
Active and Passive, in which it agrees with the Latin ; while 
the Egyptian cannot be said to have any form of the Active 
or Passive, as there is no mode of discovering the meaning, 
except by the context; and precisely the same word is used, 
sometimes in an Active and sometimes in a Passive sense. 
The distinction of Active and Passive Voices, therefore, 
though a beauty, a convenience, and an accuracy in language, 
cannot be said to be a necessary, as the Egyptians, a great, a 
polished, and a learned people, did without it. (Scholtz's 
Grammar, p. 74.) 

xi. With respect to Numbers, the Greek, the Sanskrit, 
and the Slavonic have a Singular, a Dual, and a Plural. The 
Egyptian rejects the Dual, in which it is followed by the 
Latin ; while the Arabic retains it, and the Hebrew has a 
Dual form for nouns, but none for verbs. As the Dual 
form is dispensed with by the greater number of languages, 
it cannot be regarded as an essential of language in general. 

xii. As regards Cases, the Greek has five, the Nominative, 
the Genitive, the Dative, the Accusative, and the Vocative, 
to which the Latin joins the Ablative. The Sanskrit has 



LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 303 

eight Cases, adding the Tmplementive and Locative to the 
Latin. The Slavonic follows the Sanskrit in its Implementive 
and Locative cases, but rejects the Ablative. With the 
exception of the German, most of the other languages of 
modern Europe cannot be said, strictly speaking, to have 
any cases of Substantives, as their different relations are de- 
noted by Particles. 

xiii. One of the most perplexing circumstances to the 
learner of a new language, is the distinction of genders, 
which in things without life, and in the very large class of 
words, significant of intellectual and moral ideas and relations, 
cannot be said to have any foundation whatever in the order 
of nature, or to be applicable to them at all without a violent 
metaphor, with which we should be more shocked if we were 
not accustomed to it by the ordinary use of language. Gen- 
der, however, is an adscititious and accidental and by no means 
an inherent and essential quality of speech, as two of the 
most beautiful and cultivated languages in the world do 
without it, the Persic and the English ; the former so remark- 
able for its softness and harmony that it may be denominated 
the Italian of Asia, and might induce one to hazard a predic- 
tion that, if ever the march of intellect should again extend 
to that vast continent (where, alas ! since the decline of the 
glories of Bagdad under the Arabian Caliphs, in the begin- 
ning of the ninth century, there has been no march except 
in the wrong direction), Saadi, Hafiz, and Firdousi will be- 
come, to the blue stockings of Asia, what Petrarch, Guarini, 
and Tasso have long been to those of Europe ; and the latter 
so conspicuous for its copiousness, clearness, versatility, and 
vigour as to have proved itself fully equal to the development 
of some of the grandest efforts of the human mind — the philo- 
sophy of Bacon, the poetry of Shakspeare, and the oratory of 
Burke, three names which it would be difficult to parallel in 
the annals of any age or country. 

xiv. With respect to what are called the parts of speech, 
the terms of Noun Substantive and Noun Adjective, employed 
by the Greek and Latin grammarians, prove that they re- 



304 LANGUAGE IN GENERAL, 

garded them as essentially the same word ; and it is a well- 
ascertained fact, that many of the Indian tribes of North 
America have no Adjectives in their language. In the Greek 
and Latin it is extremely difficult, in many instances, to 
distinguish the Article from the Pronoun, " as each seems 
either." The Participle is so clearly a mere modification of 
the Verb, as hardly to deserve the name of a distinct part 
of speech more than either of the tenses ; and as to the Par- 
ticles, or indeclinable parts of speech, it may be easily proved 
that they differ from the declinable solely in use, and not at 
all by nature. According to Plutarch, Plato was accustomed 
to assert, that all language consists of Nouns and Verbs ; and 
I am disposed to go one step further, and state my opinion, 
that there must have been a period in human society when 
the language of mankind consisted solely of Nouns Sub- 
stantive, and those the names of external objects. 

xv. Dismissing every sort of hypothesis on the subject, 
the simplest and least artificial specimens of speech we can 
be said to be acquainted with, are the Sanskrit Dhatos, or 
Verbal Roots, and the great body of words composing the 
Chinese spoken language, which, we are informed by gram- 
marians, are destitute of case, gender, and number, and may 
therefore, with propriety, be denominated Abstract Words. 

xvi. Respecting the former, the literal meaning of the 
word Dhatu, as explained in Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary, 
is a primary or elementary substance, earth, water, fire, air, 
and Akas, or atmosphere, and, as applied to language in a 
secondary or metaphorical sense, he says, " Dhatu, a gram- 
matical root ; in Sanskrit this radical performs no other office, 
and cannot be used as a word without undergoing some 
change;" and Wilkins, in the introduction to his Sanskrit 
Radicals, expresses himself on the subject as follows : — " The 
interpretations of the roots are given in Sanskrit by nouns 
put in the locative or seventh case, and in English by the 
second person of the Imperative, which must be considered 
as the root of verbs and verbal nouns in our language ; but 
the student must not conclude from this, that these radical 



LANGUAGE in general. 305 

syllables are either nouns or verbs till they are inflected. 
The significations attributed to a large proportion of them 
will be found exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory, as if 
nothing more were intended than to convey some general 
idea of the meaning of each root. In the English ex- 
planations occasional deviations will be found from the 
Sanskrit. These for the most part have been made upon the 
authority of commentators." 

xvii. As regards the Chinese spoken words, we have 
the following account of them in the article ( China,' in the 
Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica: — " The collo- 
quial language is not less singular than the symbolical cha- 
racters ; being, like the latter, exclusively their own, having 
borrowed nothing from, nor lent any thing to the rest of 
the world. The 330 monosyllables, each beginning generally 
with a consonant, and ending with a vowel, or liquid, or the 
double consonant ng, which, as we have observed, complete 
the catalogue of words in their language, are, by means of 
four modifications of sound or intonation to each syllable, ex- 
tended to about 1300, beyond which not one of them is 
capable of the least degree of inflection, or change of termi- 
nation ; and the same unchangeable monosyllable acts the 
part of a Noun Substantive and Adjective, a Verb, and a 
Participle according to its collocation in a sentence, or the 
monosyllables with which it is connected. It is neither 
affected by number, case, nor gender ; mood, tense, nor per- 
son ; all of which in speaking are designated by certain affixes 
or prefixes, to mark the sense." 

xviii. Having traced language by a process of analysis 
to the rudest state in which we can discover it actually exist- 
ing, or, at any rate, of which we have any clear and authentic 
account, a task comparatively easy, I must now proceed in 
another direction, and endeavour, by synthesis, to build up 
the vast fabric of language, tracing, if possible, the connecting 
links, — the gradual changes, — the fine and almost insensible 
shades which unite the abstract words of the Chinese with 

x 



306 LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 

the Orations of Demosthenes and the Poems of Virgil, per- 
haps the most perfect models of human compositions. 

Some such attempt as this appears to have engaged the 
mind of Dugald Stewart when he wrote the following pas- 
sage: — "I have mentioned but a few of the innumerable 
topics which crowd upon me as fit objects of inquiry for the 
rising generation ; nor have I been guided in my selection of 
these by any other consideration than their peculiar adap- 
tation to the actual circumstances of the philosophical world. 
Among these the most prominent is the Natural or Theo- 
retical History of Language, including under this title written 
as well as oral language, — a subject which will probably con- 
tinue to furnish new problems to human ingenuity, in the 
most improved state of human knowledge. It is not sur- 
prising that an art which lays the foundation of all the others, 
and which is so intimately connected with the exercise of 
reason itself, should leave behind it such faint and obscure 
traces of its origin and infancy." (First Dissertation, Enc. 
Brit. vol. v. p. 199.) 



307 



CHAP. XXVII. 

ON NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. — EXTENSION OF THE MEANING OF 
WORDS. 

I. Locke has remarked in the third Book of his Essay, 
that the formation of language supposes two indispensable 
conditions : — 

1. A consciousness in man of his power to produce articu- 
late sounds. 

2. A perception of the possibility of those sounds becoming 
the sis;ns of his ideas. 

There is every reason to believe that a person born per- 
fectly deaf, or secluded altogether from human converse, 
would possess neither the consciousness, nor the perception, 
as we find from experience, that dumbness is the invariable 
associate with deafness from infancy, and that gestures and 
motions are the imperfect substitutes for words. Though a 
healthy infant, therefore, begins to use its tongue very early, 
and clearly expects that the inarticulate sounds he utters will 
be understood by those about him, there are strong grounds 
for believing that the whole is to be referred to imitation. 
When his powers of perception and memory are sufficiently 
developed to enable his ear to discriminate, and his mind to 
retain the sounds which are addressed to him most frequently, 
words are gradually substituted for those inarticulate cries 
he had been in the habit of uttering, which appear to be the 
only language taught by Nature. She supplies the elements 
of speech ; but without the assistance of her sister Art the 
native powers of the human mind seem to be altogether in- 
adequate either to effect the combination those elements are 
intended to form, articulate sounds, or make any considerable 
advance towards the end that combination was destined to 
accomplish, language. 

x 2 



308 NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

ii. He has also observed, that communication by words 
has a double use. 

1. Civil, or such an interchange of thoughts and ideas as 
may be rendered subservient to the ordinary business and 
pursuits of life, in the societies of men, one amongst another. 

2. Philosophical, or such a use of words as may serve to 
convey the precise notions of things, and to express, in 
general propositions, certain and undoubted truths, which 
the mind may rest upon, and be satisfied with, in its search 
after true knowledge. 

Whatever may be the possible attainments of the human 
mind, in some future and greatly improved state of society, I 
must confess that I can form no conception, either of lan- 
guage or of the use of language, essentially different from 
what we now experience them to be. That philology will 
partake of the benefit of the general advance of knowledge, I 
see no reason to doubt ; but, on the contrary, feel confident 
that the inductive reasoning of Bacon is as applicable to that 
as to any other branch of human pursuit, and that our more 
accurate acquaintance with the various languages of mankind 
must be beneficially felt as regards language in general ; but, 
in my most sanguine expectations of the possible improve- 
ment of language, I must persist in regarding any future 
change to be produced as one of degree, and not of kind. 
With the progress of philology the labours of the etymolo- 
gist will become at once more comprehensive and more 
certain ; but when every word in every language has been 
traced to its true and undoubted source, should such a period 
ever arrive, we shall still be very far from having got rid of 
all ambiguity in the use of language. Etymology, by ascer- 
taining the origin, may undoubtedly do much towards de- 
termining the meaning, and fixing the use of words ; but it 
must never be forgotten that etymology, in its most high 
and palmy state, can give us no certain information, except 
with regard to the past, little as to the present, and abso- 
lutely nothing as to the future ; that it can only tell us what 
a word was, not what it actually is, which can be learnt in 
no other way than by a diligent observation of the various 



NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 309 

modes and different connexions in which it is employed by 
the best speakers and writers. As the meaning of words can 
only be acquired by a reference to their actual use, and as 
the latter varies greatly in every country, not only from 
century to century, but from generation to generation, it 
appears to me that the efforts of the philologist, when directed 
towards the attainment of an immutable signification and use 
of words, are quite as chimerical and hopeless as the exertions 
of the political economist to devise an invariable standard of 
value, or the long exploded phantoms of the transmutation 
of metals, the elixir vitas, or the perpetual motion. 

III. The philosophy of language does not pretend to ac- 
count for the reason why particular ideas, or combinations of 
ideas, were expressed by particular sounds. If there had 
been any natural and necessary connexion between things and 
words, between ideas and the sounds which are the signs of 
them, there could have been but one language in the world. 
But there is a well-known volume which contains the Lord's 
Prayer in one hundred and fifty different languages, and in a 
general way one may be said to be as good as another, as the 
leading purposes of speech are answered by all. The con- 
nexion between words and things, therefore, is not natural, 
but entirely arbitrary, and any idea may be represented by 
any sound, when the two have been firmly connected by the 
mind in the way of association. But while, in this view, lan- 
guage appears to be the most flexible, in another it is the 
most intractable of all conceivable subjects. Augustus re- 
marked very truly, that though he was the undisputed 
master of the Roman world, it was not in his power to intro- 
duce a new Latin word into general use, and Claudius was 
equally unable to give permanence to three new forms of 
letters, which we find in the inscriptions of his reign. 

iv. We can derive little or no assistance from the Scrip- 
tures of the Old Testament, and gain nothing of moment by 
reverting to the origin of the human race as described by 
them, as, so far as the subject of language is concerned, all 
access to the tree of knowledge is closed. Although the 

x 3 



310 NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

great philologists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
appear to have overlooked nothing which this source of in- 
formation could supply, we find an author of the present 
day, Mr. Davies, in his Celtic Researches, returning to the 
charge, and the following are specimens of his mode of philo- 
sophising. " Let us put the case that Adam, the first man, 
would inform his new-created bride of the elephant. The 
character which he had already described in this animal, in the 
act of naming him, was probably his enormous bulk. Being 
an inexpert orator he would not trust entirely and exclusively 
to the powers of his voice ; his arms would be elevated and 
spread abroad, in order to intimate the comprehension of 
gigantic space. This descriptive gesture would be aided by 
an immediate and spontaneous inflation of his cheeks, till his 
breath would find a passage through his nostrils. This 
natural description of a huge bulk would produce the sound 
B — M ; and that sound, rendered articulate by the inter- 
vention of a vowel, would describe bulkiness, and might be 
appropriated most happily to the elephant, or great beast." 
(Edin. Review, vol. iv. p. 398.) 

Mr. Davies takes upon him to assert that Adam was an 
inexpert orator, and there is ground for suspecting that he 
was not a much better Hebrew master to Eve, if he applied 
the word Bern to the elephant, as his descendants, the Jews, 
appear to have employed it to denote the hippopotamos. 
(Yide Gibbs's Gesenius in voce Behaimah.) Or admitting 
this extremely ingenious theory to be true, it will only ac- 
count for the Hebrew name of the elephant, leaving his 
denomination in at least five hundred other languages unex- 
plained. 

v. Again, although the account in Genesis informs us 
that the Lord brought all the beasts of the field and fowls of 
the air to Adam to see what he would call them, Mr. Davies 
more than insinuates that they named themselves, as their 
names were imposed on the principle of imitative harmony, 
and descriptive of the cries they uttered. ss He (Adam)," 
says Mr. Davies, " may have described the dove by fluttering 



NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 311 

his hand, so as to intimate the act of the wing in flight, and 
by repeating the syllable Toor, Toor (Dove). He now 
walks forth, accompanied by the mother of mankind. The 
elephant presents his enormous bulk ; the horse flies over the 
field; the Bern and the Soos (horse) are soon and readily 
distinguished. They are saluted by the cow, the sheep, and 
the dove; the Mo, the Ba, and the Toor are immediately 
recognised. How great must have been their joy to find 
themselves in possession of a social language ! " (Edin. Re- 
view, p. 399.) 

After all, although the animals named themselves, I can- 
not discover, with any approximation to certainty, that they 
spoke Hebrew ; if they had done so, I think it probable that 
the cow would have called itself Pharah, and not Moo, and 
the sheep Tzon, and not Ba ; at least such were the names 
by which they were distinguished at long subsequent 
periods ; and I very much fear that in this degenerate age 
we know as little about the language, as about the pure, un- 
alloyed happiness of Paradise. 

vi. Locke has remarked that there can be little doubt 
that the oldest words in every language were the names of 
external objects. It not only is so, but a little reflection 
will convince us that it could not have been otherwise. We 
are constrained to illustrate the unknown by the known, to 
explain the recondite by the familiar, to describe the in- 
visible by the visible, to substitute the material for the 
spiritual. From this necessity the poetry of the Old Testa- 
ment is continually falling into anthropomorphitism, — a thing, 
of all others, the most abhorrent to its letter and spirit ; and 
we read continually of the eyes, the mouth, the hand, and 
the arm of the Lord, — a mode of expression which the writers 
would most surely have avoided, if they could have devised 
any other way of describing his providence, and his instruc- 
tion, his direction, and his power. In the same way the 
names of almost all the faculties and operations of the mind 
are metaphorical, and derived from material objects and ac- 
tions, such as imagination, conception, apprehension, judg- 

x 4 



312 NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

merit, deliberation, acuteness, keenness, and dulness. Among 
the names of external objects, probably the very earliest 
were those which denote the parts of the human body, which 
have been extended so widely by metaphor and analogy, that 
we are hardly conscious of a figure of speech when we make 
use of them ; as for instance in the words leg and foot applied 
to innumerable articles of household furniture, in eye applied 
to a needle or a bolt, mouth to an oven or a cannon, teeth - 
to a cog wheel or a saw, arm to a lever, or the yard of a 
ship. 

vii. Next to the parts of the human body, probably the 
relations of kindred, especially those of father, mother, child, 
son, and daughter, have given birth to more metaphors than 
any other class of words. This is remarkably the case in 
the Oriental languages, in which they are still retained, and 
they prevail in a much greater degree in the Shemitic lan- 
guages, that is, in the Arabic and its descendants, than in 
the Sanskrit, and the languages which have been derived 
from it, that is, the greater part of those of modern Europe. 

viii. It is remarkable, that amidst so great a variety of 
languages, the march of the human mind should have been 
so uniform 3 as we find many of the same metaphors pre- 
vailing in every part of the world. For instance, in Persic 
we have Chesm, an eye and a fountain ; in Hebrew Ain, an 
eye and a fountain ; and probably the Scythian word Spu, 
eye, mentioned by Herodotus, is cognate with the German 
Spa, spring. At the first glance the words Chesm and Ain, 
in the sense of fountain, appear to be primary and literal, and 
not secondary and figurative words ; and yet there can hardly 
be a doubt that they are metaphors, and were suggested by 
the analogy between the tears which burst from the eye, and 
the waters which bubble up from a fountain. With the 
extension of our knowledge of languages we shall probably 
discover that many words, which we now regard as literal, 
are mere metaphors. In Persic we find the word Chems, 
eye, which we should be tempted to regard merely as a 
transposition of Chesm, did we not find in Arabic the word 
Shems, and in Hebrew the word Shemesh as the literal names 



NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 313 

of the sun ; and did we not know that that luminary, in almost 
all the languages of antiquity, was denominated the Eye of the 
World, and worshipped as the greatest, if not sole, presiding 
divinity. As the Ch in the Persic word Chems is soft, it is 
the probable etymology of the Arabic Shems, and the 
Hebrew Shemesh, and the analogy of the Arabic word Ain 
furnishes no inconsiderable confirmation, as it signifies both 
-the eye and also the body of the sun and his rays. I shall 
now proceed to make some remarks on the metaphors derived 
from the different parts of the body, as one of the best modes 
of illustrating the extension of the meaning of words. 

The Head. 

ix. Sar, Persic, the human head, and by analogy the 
capital of a pillar. In the following significations we are 
hardly sensible of a metaphor, — the top, principle, origin, 
summit, extremity, end, point, great, large, highest, greatest, 
chief. In the subsequent meanings, that which covers the 
head is derived by metonymy from the head itself, — a veil, 
awning, canopy, covering ; but in the following significations 
we can trace no connexion whatever with the primitive word 
— the atmosphere, a gentle gale, desire # , longing, wish, love, 
intention, will, cheerfulness, and consequently the empire of 
etymology is at an end; while in all the meanings of the 
Hebrew Sar we clearly trace the extension of the original 
word by an obvious analogy, — a captain, commander, prince, 
chief, archangel. In all these the analogy is so close that 
we are hardly sensible of a metaphor. The same is the case 
in the Hebrew word Bosh, the literal name of the head. In 
the sense of beginning^ I believe it enters into the compo- 
sition of what is called the first word in the Book of Genesis, 
but which appears to be three words, B (prefix), in, Bosh, 
beginning, and Aith, time — in the beginning of time God 
created the heavens and the earth. (Gibbs's Gesenius.) 

The Face. 

x. In the Persic word Boy (Boi), face, its primitive 
meaning never disappears in the whole course of its extension 

* Ser, Love (Armenian)* 



314 NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

to such words as air, mien, aspect, countenance, the surface, 
appearance, semblance. In the expression, the face of the 
earth, we are hardly conscious of a metaphor. The various 
meanings of the Hebrew word Phanim are also easily 
accounted for by analogy, metonymy, and synecdoche — a 
face, countenance, appearance, looks, surface, surperficies, the 
front, or forepart, a mouth, a person, personal appearance. 

The Ear. 

xi. In Persic, Gosh signifies not only an ear, but also a 
hearer, a listener, a spy, an emissary, an informer ; that is, he 
who uses his ears for the most part in a bad sense. The 
Arabic Uzn (Azn) signifies an ear, the tip of the ear, and 
by an extension of the second meaning, a handle — also per- 
mission, leave, licence, dismission, conge ; or, by a slight figure 
of speech, that which has been heard. The ear is denomi- 
nated by periphrasis, in Sanskrit, Sravanapatha ; that is, the 
road or path of hearing. 

The Eye. 

xn. In Persic the word Chesm signifies not only the eye, 
but a cup, an amulet, or charm against fascination or enchant- 
ment, and also hope. Though the secondary meanings deviate 
very far from the primitive, I believe the latter is never" 
entirely lost sight of. The signification of cup is evidently 
a metaphor deduced not directly from the eye itself, but 
from its orbit or bony socket; which seems to be also the 
case in the eye of a needle, or a bolt. The eye is conceived 
by the Orientals to be the great instrument in fascination, 
and we may suspect the signification of hope to be a meta- 
phor founded on the supposed analogy between that exhila- 
rating feeling to the mind, and light to the body, of which 
the. eye is the instrument or recipient. The meanings of the 
Arabic word Aayn (Ain) are very various. 

1. The eye, sight, aspect. 

2. A fountain, conduit, flowing water, spring, source, 
evidently from the analogy between the eye shedding tears, 
and the earth producing water. 



NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 315 

3. A spy, a watchman, observer, spectator, speculator, all 
persons whose chief business it is to use their eyes. 

4. A small chink, or eye-hole ; a metaphor from the orbit 
of the eye. 

5. An object generally, whatever is seen with the eyes. 
Besides all these the word has numerous other significations, 

of the origin of which it is extremely difficult to give any 
account. Ain, in Hebrew, as has been already remarked, 
also signifies an eye and a fountain. 

The Nose. 

xiii. In Persic Bui signifies both a nose and the beak 
of a bird. Its reduplication Bulbul is a probable etymology 
of the Oriental name of the nightingale, from its exquisite 
notes, in forming which the mouth is the chief instrument. 
Bui also gives the derivation of our English word Bill, the 
beak of a bird, and, combined with Istan, of Istambul, the 
ancient name of Constantinople, from its situation, that is, 
the place of a nose or cape. There can be little doubt about 
the latter, as the Persic word Bini denotes both a nose and 
a promontory, agreeing with the use of Ness in many 
English compounds. The Arabic Anf is also employed in 
the same way. In that language we find a metaphor which 
at the first sight appears violent and almost ludicrous, but 
which, on a little reflection, is easily intelligible. A prince, 
or chief, is denominated the nose of his people, by which no 
more seems to be meant than that as the nose is the most 
prominent feature of the face, so the prince is the most con- 
spicuous personage in the body politic. 

The Mouth. 

xiv. In Persic Dahan. It supplies innumerable metaphors, 
being applied to almost every aperture. As applied to the 
notch of an arrow it signifies merely that which is open, to 
the edge of a scymetar that which bites. The Arabic Earn, 
and Fo, are chiefly remarkable for the light they throw on 
the formation of the Greek Verb Phemi (dico), and Pheme, 



316 NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

Greek, and Fama, Latin, that which is spoken or proceeds 
out of the mouth. 

The Teeth. 

xv. We find in Hebrew the word Shain, signifying a 
tooth, and also the tooth of a rock, a sharp cliff; and in 
Chinese, as the name of the 46th key, Shan, a hill or moun- 
tain. I feel confident that the spoken language of the 
Chinese does not stand so completely alone as has been 
hitherto pretended, and every analogy with any other lan- 
guage, however slight, is well worth observing. It is not a 
little remarkable that we can trace every stage of the gradual 
transition of the Chinese hieroglyphical character for a moun- 
tain, into the Phoenician and Hebrew letter Shin. (See Chap. 
II. sect. 7.) 

The metaphors from the teeth are innumerable, and so com- 
mon that they hardly appear to be figures of speech. As 
the word mouth is applied to almost every kind of aperture, 
tooth is applied almost as widely to every projection — to the 
wards of a lock, the cogs of a wheel, the teeth of a saw, of 
a comb, &c. 

The Arm. 

xvi. Bazn, Persic,- the arm, or the upper part of it ; also, 
by metonymy, strength, power ; the arm being the chief in- 
strument of conquest and dominion. In Hebrew, Zeroa, 
the arm, strength, force, help, assistance. In this and in- 
numerable other instances we perceive that the process of 
thought has been precisely similar, where mankind have 
distinguished their ideas by very different names. In many 
languages the same word signifies the arm, and a measure of 
longitude, of which the arm was the standard. 

The Hand. 

xvu. Dast, Persic, the hand, a cubit. The chief seat of 
precedency given to the most honoured guests — a cushion on 
which they sit. (So denominated, in both instances, probably 
from being on the right hand.) Power, strength, pre- 



NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 317 

excellence, superiority, victory, an occasion, the fore feet of 
any animal, the end, termination, limit, boundary. The 
leading significations of the Hebrew word Yad are very 
nearly similar. Our English word Cubit is derived from 
the Latin Cubitus, the elbow ; and we have a measure 
derived from the hand, which is, I think, limited to the de- 
scription of the height of horses. The Arabic Yad signifies 
a handle, as well as a hand. The metaphors derived from 
the hand are too numerous to be particularised, and so 
obvious that they are hardly remarked as figures, as the hand 
of a watch, clock, or dial, &c. 

The Heart. 
xviii. Dil, Persic, the heart, the mind, the soul, the mar- 
row, the pith of a tree. Kalb, Arabic, the heart, the mind, 
the soul, understanding, intellect; the kernel, marrow, the 
middle; the centre of an army. In Hebrew Laibab, with 
many of the same significations. It is remarkable that, while 
in the Oriental languages the heart is regarded as the seat 
of intellect, in those of modern Europe it is regarded as that 
of feeling. The metaphors from the heart are very numerous. 
By our English one of " heart of oak," we intend to express 
the middle or hardest part of the tree, the wood that has 
been longest formed. 

The Foot 

XIX. Pay (Pai), Persic, a foot ; also a footstep, track, trace, 
mark, vestige; also a pretence, pretext, false appearance. 
Pay, Chinese, the foot, a lineal measure. (China, Sup. Enc. 
Brit, plate 55, key 103.) Kadam, Arabic, a foot, the sole 
of a foot, the fore foot, a footstep, a step, pace. From a rude 
and general analogy with the fore foot, or that which precedes, 
we have the following Arabic words : — 

1. Kadem, prior, preceding, superior, more excellent, 
better. 

2. Kidm, antiquity, the former age, ancient times. 

3. Kudm, preceding, going before, the being prior in point 
of time, place, or degree. 



318 NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE, 

4. Kidman, formerly, anciently, in days of old. 

5. Kidam, merit, a virtuous man, preceding in point of 

time, eternity. 

6. Kudm, bold, audacious. 

7. Kudum, an intrepid man, excelling in courage. 

It is difficult to say whether we ought to regard these 
words as dialects of the Arabic, or merely as the result of an 
unsettled orthography. I believe the latter view of the 
subject in this and numerous similar instances to be the most 
just. 

We have a curious exemplification of the extension of the 
meaning of the word Foot in two or three languages. 

Rat, Coptic, a foot. 

Rota, Latin, a wheel, or that which supplies the place of a 

foot to a large class of vehicles. 
Ratha, Sanskrit, a chariot, or that which supplies the place 

of feet to those who ride in it. 
Rheda, Latin, a chariot, in the same signification. 
Eretmos, Greek, an oar, or that which supplies the place of 

feet to a boat ; from Rat, Coptic, foot ; and Mos, 

Latin, manner, in loco aut in modo pedis. 

The metaphors formed from leg and foot are without 
nmnber, and applied to a large proportion of the domestic 
utensils we make use of. 

The Nails. 

xx. Naal, Persic, a hoof, and thence by analogy a horse- 
shoe, a shoe, a slipper, or anything which defends the feet of 
man or beast, a woman's buskin, and, by a slight extension, 
a ferrule at the end of a sword-sheath, or stick. It does not 
mean nails in Persic ; but there can be no doubt that our 
English word is derived from it, from an obvious similarity 
in the office of the nails of the fingers and toes, and the 
hoofs of quadrupeds. In Arabic we have Zifar, a nail or 
claw, and Zafar, victory, triumph, which is essentially the 
same word, as those, both to beasts and birds of prey, are the 
chief means or instruments of victory. * 



NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 319 

The Heel 

XXI. Pashinah (Persic), Aakab (Arabic), the heel, and, 
from an analogy with the position of the heel relatively to the 
foot, whatever comes behind, or the last of any thing, as the 
rear of an army, a horse running at the heels of another, and, 
by a change of the vowel point, Aakib, offspring, successors, 
posterity, the end of a month. We find Aakab also as a 
particle in the sense of after, behind ; and written Kaab, it 
gives a probable and almost certain etymology of our English 
word Kibe : " The toe of the peasant comes so near the heel 
of the courtier he galls his kibe." (Hamlet.) 

Miscellaneous. 

xxii. The Sanskrit contains many singular metaphors, 
and exhibits some curious illustrations of the mode in which 
the meaning of words is gradually extended, of which my 
limits will allow me to mention only a few. One of the 
names of a knife in Sanskrit is Asiputrika, from Asi, a sword, 
and Putrika, daughter : that is, the daughter of the sword, or 
an infant sword, from its smallness. We have in English the 
word Dirk, as the name of a sword of the very smallest de- 
scription, usually worn by midshipmen, and we find in Persic 
the same word with the meaning of infant. There can be 
little doubt that Asiputrika accounts for the application of 
Dirk. In Sanskrit we find the word Patra signifying lite- 
rally the leaf of a tree, and by a slight extension the leaf of a 
book, gold leaf, and, by analogy with the latter, any thin 
sheet or plate of metal. The example of a leaf flying in the 
air appears to have extended the word Patra to the feather 
of an arrow ; thence to the wing of a bird, or that which 
causes to fly, and from the latter, by a more comprehensive 
and less close analogy, to any vehicle in general, as a car, a 
horse, a camel. The leaf of a tree and a camel would appear 
to have little in common, and yet every link in the chain 
which connects them is distinctly traceable, nor is the transi- 
tion in any one of the instances very violent. The Sanskrit 
word Patrin seems to be almost synonymous with Patra, 



320 NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

written Patran (with Anuswarah), and signifies a tree, an 
arrow, a bird in general, a falcon in particular, a chariot, and 
a rider in a car or carriage. All these have much in common 
with the meanings of Patra ; but Patrin also means a moun- 
tain, in which we miss every trace of the primitive word. It 
is not undeserving of notice, that Patrin is easily misread 
Pattin, which latter word appears to be cognate with the 
Greek Peteinon, volatile, and to prove that it had been so 
misread by the early Greeks. We find in Sanskrit rather a 
singular metaphor. A pair of scissors is denominated Sarari- 
muchi from Sarari, a bird, and mucha, mouth, from a resem- 
blance between their form and the beak of a bird. 



321 
CHAP. XXVIII. 

ON NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 

I. What is a Noun Adjective ? This is a question much 
more easily asked than answered. The Eton Latin Gram- 
mar informs us that a Noun Substantive declares its own 
meaning, and requires not another word to be joined with it 
to show its signification; and that a Noun Adjective always 
requires to be joined with a Substantive of which it shows 
the nature or quality. There is a mixture of truth and 
error in both these definitions. A Noun Substantive cer- 
tainly does not now declare its own meaning ; if it did we 
might dispense altogether with the use of dictionaries ; but I 
believe such to have been the case primarily in the infancy of 
language. And again, if a Noun Substantive fully explained 
itself, there could be no need of Adjectives at all, as we are 
totally unable to form the remotest conception of matter in 
the abstract ; and every substance to us is merely a collection 
or combination of properties or qualities, inhering in some 
unknown substratum. As to the real essences of the school- 
men, or, in the language of Locke, that size, figure, and 
motion of the insensible parts of things, on which their 
sensible properties depend, and from which they flow, so far 
from being able to form any notion of them, we cannot even 
talk of them without falling into perpetual contradictions. 
As it is not very obvious how we are to acquire any know- 
ledge of the external world, except through the medium of 
our five senses, the size, figure, and motion of the insensible 
parts of things (that is, those parts which are not cognizable 
by the senses) appear to stand in the same relation to man as 
light to the blind, or sounds to the deaf; and accordingly, I be- 
lieve the real essences are rapidly following the Philosopher's 
Stone, the Elixir Vitre, and the Perpetual Motion. If the 
nominal essences were exhausted we might sit down and 

Y 



322 NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 

weep, like Alexander, because there were no more worlds to 
conquer ; but in the actual state of our knowledge there is so 
little cause for apprehension that Ave shall have nothing left 
to do, that there is much more ground for despondency at 
finding our limited faculties so inadequate to contend with 
the grandeur and immensity of nature. When we are fully 
acquainted with all the substances of which this, our globe, 
is composed — when we have examined the various strata, 
their position and proportion with reference to each other, — 
when analysis has reduced all compound bodies to their 
simple elements, and synthesis reproduced from these ele- 
ments all the new compounds they are capable of forming, 
and diligently ascertained and recorded their properties, — - 
when we shall have remarked and described every vegetable 
production on the earth's surface, from the cedar of Lebanon 
to the hyssop which grows on the wall, and have become 
familiar with every form of sentient existence to which the 
teeming earth gives birth and support, — when in short we 
have exhausted all those materials which the wise and bene- 
ficent Author of nature has provided at once to stimulate our 
senses, and reward their activity, — then, and not until then, we 
mav begin to lament our ignorance of the real essences, the 
size, figure, and motion of the insensible parts of things. 

II. But to return from this slight digression. " The Ad- 
jective," says Dr. Beattie, in his Theory of Language (page 
163.), " denotes a simple quality, as brave, cruel, good, swift, 
round, square." " Nouns Adjective," says Adam Smith, in 
his treatise on the Formation of Languages, " are the words 
which express quality, considered as qualifying, or, as the 
schoolmen say, in concrete with some particular object. Thus 
the word green expresses a certain quality, considered as 
qualifying, or as in concrete with the particular subject to 
which it may be applied. Words of this kind, it is evident, 
may serve to distinguish particular objects from others com- 
prehended under the same general appellation. The words 
green tree, for example, might serve to distinguish a particu- 
lar tree from others that were withered, or blasted." " Ad- 



NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 323 

jectives," says Dr. Lowth, "are very improperly called Nouns, 
for they are not the names of things ; " and Mr. Harris, in 
his Hermes, has the following passage : " Grammarians have 
been led into that strange absurdity of ranging Adjectives 
with Nouns, and separating them from Verbs ; though they 
are homogeneous with respect to Verbs, as both sorts denote 
attributes : they are heterogeneous with respect to Nouns, as 
never properly denoting substances." The views of the 
earlier grammarians were very different, and, I believe, much 
more just. Scaliger expresses himself on the subject in the 
following words : " Nihil differt concretum ab abstracto, nisi 
modo significationis, non significatione." And Wilkins: 
" The true, genuine sense of a Noun Adjective will be found 
to consist in this ; that it imports this general notion of per- 
taining to" And Wallis still more accurately : " Adjectivum 
respectivum est nihil aliud quam ipsa vox substantiva, adjec- 
tive posita." " Quodlibet substantivum adjective positum 
degenerat in adjectivum." " Ex substantivis fiunt adjectiva 
copias, addita terminatione y," &c. (Tooke's Diversions of 
Purley, vol. ii. p. 427.) 

in. So much for the opinion of some of the leading gram- 
marians. The use of the Adjective may be dispensed with in 
English by interposing a hyphen between two substantives, 
as a gold-ring, a brass-tube, a silk-string, a brick-house, a 
wood-hut, a canvass-tent, in all which instances the first Sub- 
stantive performs the office of an Adjective, and describes the 
quality of the second. 

If we write golden-ring, brazen-tube, silken-string, and 
wooden-hut, the final en is a mark of the genitive case, and 
equivalent to ring of gold, tube of brass, string of silk, and 
hut of wood. In the Shemitic languages the genitive case 
is expressed, not by a change in the word which, in English, 
is preceded by the sign of, but in the termination of the prior 
word. 

Or the sense of the Adjective in English may in every 
instance be conveyed by changing the form of the sentence ; 
and for a brave man, a beautiful woman, a swift horse, 

Y 2 



324 XOUNS ABJECTIVE. 

substituting a man of bravery, a woman of beauty, a horse 
of swiftness. Nor will the difficulty be at all increased by 
the circumstance of there being more than one Adjective. 
An infinitely powerful, wise, and benevolent God may be 
resolved into a God of infinite power, wisdom, and benevo- 
lence. 

iv. Adjectives, therefore, are not distinct parts of speech, 
as they have been regarded by the generality of grammarians ; 
they are merely modifications of the Substantive, and differ 
from the Substantive, not in essence but in quality, not in 
nature, but merely in manner. If the use of the Adjective 
in every sentence may be avoided, merely by changing 
the form of that sentence, the Adjective cannot be regarded 
as an indispensable part of speech, and philosophical gram- 
mar is exonerated from the difficulty of accounting for one 
important class of words. Adjectives may be regarded as 
giving copiousness, variety, beauty, and harmony to language, 
but we must not consider them as constituting an essential 
ingredient. Hence we ought to regard it as a probable 
conjecture, reasoning a priori that there must be languages 
in which there are no Adjectives, and such we find, from un- 
doubted authority, to be actually the case. In a work, by 
Dr. Jonathan Edwards, on the lano-uao-e of the Xorth Ame- 

3 o o 

rican Indians, which I have already had occasion to quote, 
he says, " the Mohegans have no Adjectives in all their lan- 
guage. Although it may at first seem not only singular and 
curious, but impossible, that a language should exist with- 
out Adjectives, yet it is an indubitable fact." (Div. of 
Purley, vol. ii. p. 463.) 

v. After all that has been written about Noun Substan- 
tives and Noun Adjectives, it appears to me that the great, 
perhaps the only difference between them is, that the former 
is a word which is susceptible of receiving one gender only 
in the nominative case, while the latter is susceptible of re- 
ceiving three genders, and consequently three terminations 
in the nominative case. Both consist equally of an immu- 
table root, joined not merely to a Pronoun, but to the same 



NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 325 

In Greek that Pronoun 
is os, rj, ov } he, she, it, which in Latin becomes us, a, um. In 
Sanskrit we have the word Dur, hard, which we recognise in 
French unchanged, but which in Latin becomes Dur-us, 
Dur-a, Dur-um, and which, if it had been naturalized in 
Greek, would have been Duros, Dure, Duron. And as 
these form the three most common terminations of Adjectives 
in Greek and Latin, so they also form the three regular de- 
clensions of Substantives. In Sanskrit we find the word 
Uru, broad, which, assuming Epsilon as a prefix, becomes in 
Greek an Adjective of three terminations, Eurus, Eureia, 
Euru. Close to it in the dictionary we meet with the word 
Urnu, cover, written sometimes with U long, and sometimes 
with U short. But a long vowel is not only equivalent to, 
but is, two short ones ; and if we write Uurnu, by reading 
the initial letter as micron, and adding the usual pronomi- 
nal termination, we have Ouranos, heaven, sky, firmament, 
or that which covers the earth ; and perhaps with «, privative, 
the same root gives the etymology of Avernus, that which is 
not heaven, or the opposite of heaven. Eurus, in Greek, is 
said to be an Adjective, and Ouranos a Substantive ; but 
when we look at the Sanskrit roots, there is evidently no 
reason, in the nature of language, why the fate of these 
words should not have been exactly reversed. In Greek we 
find the word Koilos, concave, convex, hollow, an Adjective 
of three terminations, Koilos, Koile, Koilon. There is no 
such Adjective in Latin ; but we find it, as the Substantive 
Ccelum, heaven, sky, firmament, synonymous as nearly as 
possible in meaning with the Greek Ouranos, and in form 
with the Greek Koilon, the terminations Um and On being 
neuter in their respective languages ; but when the Romans 
personified heaven in mythology as the father of Saturn, 
Chronus, or Time, they wrote the word Coelus with a mas- 
culine termination, like the Greek Koilos ; and when as the 
celestial Venus, Venus Genitrix, or the mother of all things, 
they wrote Urania like the Greek Koile ; or in other words 
Ouranos, which was a Substantive in grammar, became an 
Adjective in mythology, and differed in no respect from 

Y 3 



326 NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 

Koilos. In Hebrew we meet with the word Moom, a stain 
or blemish, a Noun of the masculine gender, to which the 
Greeks added their pronominal termination Os, and formed 
the word Mgo/a-os, signifying literally a spot, and figuratively 
disgrace, or reproach, and to the same Hebrew root they 
prefixed a, privative, and formed the Adjective a/ico/ios, spot- 
less. 

vi. So far as to the nature of the Adjective, and I shall 
now proceed to say a few words as to its use. Adam Smith, 
in his short treatise on the Formation of Languages, usually 
printed with his Theory of Moral Sentiments, remarks that 
the variation in the termination of the Noun Adjective, ac- 
cording to the gender of the Substantive, which takes place 
in all the ancient languages, seems to have been introduced 
chiefly for the sake of a certain similarity of sound, of a cer- 
tain species of rhyme, which is naturally so very agreeable 
to the human ear. (p. 417.) The necessities of language 
obviously did not require more than the three regular termi- 
nations of Adjectives, which are the basis of the three regu- 
lar declensions of Substantives, either in Greek or Latin ; 
but the desire of variety, and gratification from euphony, 
soon suggested many more. The terminations of the Greek 
word Ophis, a serpent, in the singular number appear to be, 
the Latin pronoun Is, he, — of the Latin words Parens and 
Serpens, Ens the Active Participle of the Verb Substantive 
To be, — of the Greek Active Participle Tupton, Tuptousa, 
Tupton, the Active Participle of the Verb Substantive, On, 
Ousa, On ; while the terminations of some Greek Adjectives 
suggest analogies with Eis, Mia, En, one, as Charieis, Cha- 
riessa, Charien. Eis, in Greek, is a Pronoun signifying Qui- 
dam ; and as much of the modern Italian appears to be the 
rustic Roman unchanged, which itself was identical with the 
Etruscan or general language of ancient Italy, the termina- 
tion of Chariessa is probably the Italian Essa, she. 

vn. One of the most striking differences between the 
Greek and Latin, and the languages of modern Europe, un- 
doubtedly arises out of the declension of Adjectives, as the 



NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 327 

difference of gender, and variety of termination in the cases, 
allowed of a separation between the Substantive and its 
attribute, which in English is directly adverse to the genius 
of the language, and never practised without producing 
obscurity and confusion. As Adam Smith justly remarks, 
we are under the necessity of having recourse to Horace, 
in order to interpret some parts of Milton's literal translation 
of the Ode to Pyrrha, being the fifth of the first book, which 
as a translation is most lame, and as an imitation, most un- 
like. 

" Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold, 
Who always vacant, always amiable 

Hopes thee, of flattering gales 

Unmindful." 

" These are verses," continues Smith, " which it is impos- 
sible to interpret by any rules of our language. There are 
no rules in our language by which any man could discover, 
that in the first line c credulous ' referred to ( who,' and not to 
e thee ; ' or that i all gold ' referred to any thing ; or that in the 
fourth line, ' unmindful ' referred to c who ' in the second, and 
not to ' thee ' in the third ; or on the contrary, that in the 
second line, f always vacant, always amiable,' referred to f thee ' 
in the third, and not to e who ' in the same line with it. 
In the Latin, indeed, this is abundantly plain — 

* Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea ; 
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem 
Sperat, nescius aurge 
Fallacis."' 

viii. This superior freedom in the collocation of words 
was undoubtedly a great advantage gained to poetry in 
facility of composition, and variety and harmony of sound, 
but we shall be greatly deceived if we come to the con- 
clusion, that personification, or prosopopeia, is more difficult 
in English than in Greek or Latin, as it takes place probably 
to the same extent, and in precisely the same way, that is, 
by the application of the Personal Pronoun to the object 
intended to be vivified or animated. We have seen that 
when the Romans wished to describe the material heaven, 
the sky, or the firmament, they wrote the word Coelum, in 

Y 4 



328 NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 

the neuter gender, and that when they personified it in my- 
thology as the father of Saturn, they wrote it Coelus with a 
masculine termination, or as the Celestial Venus, that they 
gave a feminine termination to the Greek Ouranos, heaven, 
or rather Ouranios, and wrote Urania, the final syllable being 
equivalent to she. In the following fine passage from Para- 
dise Lost, which describes the effect produced on Satan by 
the rebuke of Zephon, the personification is produced solely 
by the application of a Personal Pronoun to an abstract 
quality, Virtue, and the substitution of her for its. 

" Abash' d the Devil stood, 
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw 
Virtue in her shape how lovely ; saw and pined 
His loss." 

ix, Though the Greeks and Romans, from the declensions 
of their Substantives and Adjectives, possessed in so much 
higher a degree, and greater perfection, the power of giving 
variety to the terminations of their words, they appear to 
have been not less sensible than the moderns to the gratifi- 
cation experienced by the ear from words beginning with the 
same letter, or alliteration, which, as I have remarked in 
another place, forms the basis of the 119th Psalm, in the 
original Hebrew, regarded merely as a literary or poetical 
composition. In Virgil, who, while he is second to hardly 
any poet of ancient or modern times, with respect to genius, 
perhaps, occupies the very highest place as regards purity of 
taste, justness of conception, and finished execution, we 
sometimes meet with a double alliteration in the same line, as 

" Constitui, et magna Manes ter voce vocavi." 

JEn. lib. vi. 506. 

and sometimes three words following each other, beginning 
with the same letter, as 

" Appetii, et Veneris violavi vulnere dextram." 

JEn. lib. xi. 277. 

Euripides, in his beautiful tragedy of Iphigeneia in Tauris, 



NOUNS ADJECTIVE. 329 

makes the heroine describe her dreary and desolate situation 
to the Chorus by a line which is all alliteration, 

"Ayctfxog, anKvog, curoXie, d(pi\og : 

to the strength of which, perhaps, the nearest approximation 
we can make in English is by the words " husbandless, child- 
less, homeless, friendless." Milton, who has frequently 
rather translated than imitated his darling Euripides, has 
innumerable passages of this sort, one of the finest of which 
is devoted to the celebration of the virtue of Abdiel. 

" So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found 
Among the faithless, faithful only he ; 
Among innumerate false, unmov'd, 
Unshaken, unseduc'd, unterrified, 
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal." 

Paradise Lost, book v. 

x. Notwithstanding all that has been said about variety 
of termination in words, Honier, the fineness of whose ear 
few will be disposed to question, appears to have derived 
singular gratification from bringing together several words 
the last syllables of which were precisely similar, such as 

OvSs icev eg deKcirovg irspireWonsvovg hnavrovg. Iliad, viii. 418. 
Neque decern vertentibus annis. 

But we have in our language a splendid example of the 
felicitous use of Adjectives, and of the powerful effect that 
may be produced not by the repetition of words with a 
similar ending, as in Homer, but by the repetition of the 
same identical word. I allude to the well-known passage 
in the Elegy on the Death of an Unfortunate Lady by Pope, 
our English Virgil, which most assuredly will not suffer by 
a comparison with any thing of a similar kind in the whole 
range of poetry. 

" By foreign hands thy dying eyes were clos'd, 
By foreign hands thy decent limbs compos'd, 
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd, 
By strangers honourd, and by strangers mourn'd ! " 



330 



CHAP. XXIX. 

ON PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 

I. The name of the Pronoun is sufficiently indicative of its 
nature, and shows that it is intended to supply the place and 
avoid the too frequent repetition of the Noun. 

In this chapter on Pronouns I shall confine my exertions 
principally to four objects. 

1. To establish the Substantive origin of Pronouns by 
pointing out such as were originally, clearly, and unequivo- 
cally Nouns. 

2. To particularise such as were so probably, if not cer- 
tainly. And if much can be firmly established under these 
two heads, the origin of all other Pronouns, the etymology of 
which cannot be traced, may be inferred from analogy. 

3. To trace the Pronouns of Greece, Rome, and modern 
Europe to other Pronouns in some Oriental language. 

4. To point out some resemblances in the Pronouns of 
the two great families of written languages, the descendants 
of the Sanskrit and the Arabic. 

First. 

ii. In La Croze's Egyptian Lexicon, at page 7., I find 
the word Atshi with the signification of Muliercula, a girl. 
On attempting to analyse it I discover that it clearly consists 
of two words ; that At is an inseparable negative particle, and 
that Shi is obsolete as a distinct Egyptian word ; but finding 
Shimi, a wOman, I can entertain little doubt that Shi is a 
contraction of it, and that the meaning of Atshi is she who 
is not a woman, that is, not a perfect or mature woman, or, 
in other words, a girl. To the Egyptian Shi, a woman, I 
have not the smallest hesitation about referring the etymology 
of our English pronoun feminine She. 



PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 331 

III. On opening the same Lexicon at page 169. I observe 
the word Jo, caput, the head, with a remark that it supplies 
the place of a Pronoun, as Ejoi, in caput meum ; i. e. in ma 
Recollecting that the whole body of Greek tradition ascribes 
the civilisation, if not the colonisation, of Greece to Egypt, 
and finding reasons in Lanzi's invaluable work on Etruria to 
conclude that the same was the case with Italy, from the 
simple form of the Egyptian Jo, head, I deduce the Boeotian 
Io), the Italian Pronoun Personal Io, I, and from the com- 
pound Ejoi, by cutting off the final vowel, Ego, I, Greek and 
Latin. 

But Jo is only one among several words in Egyptian sig- 
nifying head, among which we find Joj ; and from Ejoji, in 
caput meum, i. e. in me, we have the Attic form of Ego, 
Egoge. 

At page 141. of the Lexicon I find the word Foi, or Phoi, 
capillus, the hair, and have no doubt it will be readily con- 
ceded, that by the figure synecdoche it may mean the head. 
I find reason to believe that the Egyptian letter Fei, and the 
Egyptian and Greek Phi, if not essentially the same, were 
interchangeable, and at page 111. I find Phoi as a Possessive 
Pronoun, with the signification of my; the etymology of which 
I believe to have been Foi, the hair, the head. With the 
affixes we have in Coptic : — 

Phoi ineus (^um)* 

Phok tuus (^xjok)* 

Phof ipsius ....(<J>coqV 

Phon noster ....(<J>(joit)- 

Lanzi, on the authority of Varro, Diomedes, and Salma- 
sius, says that the .ZEolic Greeks employed the letter Sigma 
in some instances simply as an aspirate. (Tom. i. p. 84 and 
129.) If so, the Coptic Possessive Pronoun Phoi most un- 
questionably and undeniably is the origin both of the Greek 
Dual Number of Su, and of the Dual and Plural of Ou, sui, 
illius : — 

Phoi, Coptic, with Sigma prefixed, Sphoi, Greek (o-Qeo'i). 
Phon, Coptic, „ „ Sphon, Greek (acfycov). 



332 PKONOUI\ T S AXD ARTICLES . 

Os, Greek, quis, Pronoun Relative. 

Os, Latin, the face, put by synecdoche for the person, 
perhaps an obsolete ^Eolic Greek word, or 

Aish, Hebrew, a man, by reading the final letter Shin, as 
Sin. 

Ais, which approximates still nearer to the Greek. 

Is, Latin, by dropping the initial vowel. 

Second. 

iv. I have devoted this division of my subject to particu- 
larising such Pronouns as were probably, if not certainly, 
Nouns. 

At the 37 th page of Scholtz's Egyptian Grammar, after 
giving the declension of the Personal Pronouns, he remarks 
that they are also expressed by means of certain words and 
particles joined to Prepositions and Affixes. The first in- 
stance he gives is — 

1. Ammo, Ammoi, me, Coptic; the etymology of which I 
take to be Mo, or Moi, Persic, the hair, by a double synec- 
doche, first the hair for the head, and secondly the head for 
the person. The latter is so common in all the Oriental 
languages, more especially the Hebrew, that it is altogether 
unnecessary to adduce instances of it. 

From Ammoi, or Emmoi (Sahidic), milii, we have Emoi, 
Greek, dative of Ego, i. e. Mihi (i/W). 

From Amnion, or Emmon (Coptic), nostrum, nobis, nos, 
we have Emeis, Emon, Emin, Emas, plural of Ego, common 
Greek ; and Ammes, Ammon, Ammin, Ammas, -ZEolic. 

2. Eroi, mihi, Coptic ; root, Ko, Janua, Os, oris ; by a 
double synecdoche, first the mouth for the face, and next the 
face for the person. The latter is of very frequent occur- 
rence in every part of the Old Testament. 

3. Antot, Manus mea, i. e. Ego ; root, Tot, the hand, put 
by synecdoche for the person : " Whatsoever thy hand 
findeth to do, do it with all thy might," i. e. whatsoever thou 
findest to do. 

4. Anchet, in me ; root Chet, collum, venter. In the 



PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 333 

Old Testament, the belly is frequently put for the person. — 
Job xv. 2. 35. 

5. Anhet, in me, Sahidic ; root, Het, the heart ; vide 
Laibab (Hebrew), heart, in Gibbs's Gesenius, who says, with 
suffixes it forms a periphrasis of the Personal Pronouns. 

6. Nahrai, unto me ; root, Hra, the face, for the whole 
person. 

7. Ejoi, in caput meum, i. e. in me ; root, Jo, the head, 
for the person. 

In the Scriptures there is hardly any considerable part of 
the body but is somewhere or other substituted for the 
whole man. Had Blair been as familiarly acquainted with 
the poetry of the East as he was with that of Greece and 
Rome, if he had criticised the following exquisite passage 
from Pope's Eloisa to Abelard at all, it would certainly have 
been in a very different spirit : — 

'•'Dear fatal name! rest ever unreveal'd, 
Nor pass these lips in holy silence seal'd ; 
Hide it my heart within that close disguise, 
Where mix'd with God's his lov'd idea lies ; 
O write it not my hand — the name appears 
Already written — wash it out my tears. 
In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays ; 
Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeys." 

Blair observes, that to address the several parts of one's 
body as if they were animated, is not congruous to the dig- 
nity of passion, and that although a personified name, and a 
personified heart may be tolerated, a personified hand is low, 
and not in the style of true poetry. If the divine had re- 
collected the following passage from the 137th Psalm, I 
think the critic would have considerably modified the pre- 
ceding observations. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let 
my right hand forget her cunning ; if I do not remember 
thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." 
Those who are of opinion that this passage of Pope requires 
any further vindication, will find it in Payne Knight's 
" Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste," — a work 
equally remarkable for profound learning, acuteness of re- 



334 PEONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 

mark, and originality and independence of thought. (Page 

247.) 

Third. 

v. Under this head I shall attempt to trace some of the 
Pronouns and Articles of Greece, Rome, and modern Europe, 
to other Pronouns in some Oriental language. 

First, we have the Greek article in the Dual Number, To, 
Ta, To; and in the Egyptian Lexicon, at page 21, I find 
Tha., feminine, " significans aliquid pertinens ad rem de qua 
agitur." 

Thai, Egyptian, hrec, ista, Singular ; They, English, 
Plural. 

The Egyptian Definite Article Feminine Singular is Th ; 
to which, by adding a final E, we have the English Definite 
Article The, of the common gender and of both numbers. 

Again, we find, in Greek, Ou, sui, illius, Nominat. caret. 

Ou, Egyptian, Articulus Indefinitus. 

Ao, or O (Persic), he, she, it. 

Hie, Haac, Hoc, Latin. 

These words appear to have an intimate connexion with 
the Hebrew Pronouns Personal, Hoo, he, and Hi, she, 
which latter I believe to be modifications of the Hebrew 
word Chai, life, or living. All will allow that the Hebrew 
letters Hay and Heth are interchangeable, in fact they are 
confounded some scores, not to say hundreds, of times in our 
English version ; and that Wav and Yood, though not inter - 
changeable, are easily mistaken by the eye from their simi- 
larity of form. I believe the Latin pronouns Hie, Ha^c, 
Hoc, to be deducible by changes and transpositions of letters 
from the Hebrew word Chih (n^n) signifying life, or a living 
creature. 

One of the most ingenious and satisfactory chapters in 
Home Tooke's Diversions of Purley, is on the word That ; 
and following up the same train of thought I would remark 
that the Latin Conjunction Et is clearly the Egyptian 
Relative Pronoun Et, Qui, Qua?, Quod; and that Et and 
Que in Latin may very well be interchangeable, as both are 



PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 335 

in fact Pronouns. Almost all the Antiquaries and Gramma- 
rians who have treated of the Latin language have agreed 
that it was derived principally from the -ZEolic, or most 
ancient form of the Greek ; and if this opinion be just, as I 
believe it to be, and we had any specimens of the Latin old 
enough, or indeed any that can be called old at all, we ought 
to find a mixture of Greek and Latin words, as they must 
have been used while the .ZEolic was in a transition state ; 
that is, gradually ceasing to be Greek, and becoming con- 
verted into Latin. No merely Latin inscription will throw 
any light on this subject, as I do not believe there is one in 
existence in regular Roman letters that has the smallest pre- 
tensions to be regarded as of a remote antiquity. But this 
is not the case with the Etruscan inscriptions, which, if we 
could decipher them with certainty, would undoubtedly 
throw much light both on the Greek and Latin, perhaps 
more than can be derived from any other quarter whatever. 
In the Nolan Inscription, as quoted by Lanzi, we meet with 
the following sentence, " Isai Justai Et," apparently applied 
to some boundaries of territory. There can hardly be a 
doubt that Isai is a Plural formed from the Greek Isos, 
equal ; that Justai is the Latin Justai ; that Et occupies the 
place of Que ; and that in Classical Latin the phrase would 
stand Equales Justasque, or Equales et Justse. This in- 
scription is equally remarkable for the mixture of Greek and 
Latin, and for exhibiting the Egyptian Relative Pronoun 
Et, supplying the place of the Latin Conjunction Que, 
leaving little doubt either as to the nature, origin, or ety- 
mology of the Roman Et. 

Fourth. 

vi. This head will be devoted to pointing out some re- 
semblances in the Pronouns of the two great families of 
written languages, the descendants of the Sanskrit and the 
Arabic, or, in other words, the Indian and Shemitic. 



Egyptian. 


Hebrew. 


Arabic. 


Chaldee. 


Anok . I 


Anochi — Ani 


Ana 


Ana. 


Anthok thou 


Athtah— Atht 


Ent 


Anthah. 



336 



PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 



Egijptian. 




Hebrew. 


Arabic. 


ChaZdee, 


Anthof 


he 


Hoo, or Hooa 


Hon 


Hoo. 


Anon 


we 


Anachnoo 


Nairn 


Anachna 


Anthoten 


ye 


Athteni 


Entom 


Anthoon 


Anthoou 


they 


Haim 


Horn 


Himoon. 


Sanskrit, 




Persic. 


Latin. 


German. 


Ah am 


I 


Men 


Ego 


Ich. 


Twan 


thou 


Tu 


Tu 


Du. 


Sah 


he 


Ao or (Jones) 


llle 


Er. 


Nah, ac.pl 


we 


Ma 


ISTos 


Wir. 


Vah, ac. pi 


y e 


Shuma 


Vos 


Ihr. 






Ishan 


Illi 


Sie. 



These, more than any other class of words, form a line of 
difference and demarcation between the various languages of 
mankind. At the first aspect they appear to disagree toto ccelo; 
but on a closer examination the Pronouns of the languages 
which differ most widely will be found to exhibit some 
features of resemblance, and suggest the possibility, not to 
say probability, of a common origin. 

vn. Of all the languages I have hitherto examined, the 
Egyptian only has the Personal Pronoun regular ; more in 
form than substance perhaps, but still in such a way that it 
conveys the idea of having escaped the confusion of Babel, 
while all the rest appear to have experienced it. At any 
rate, it seems to have been followed by the Hebrew, Arabic, 
and whole class of Shemitic languages, and nearly to the 
same extent by the other great division of the Indo-European 
class, the Sanskrit, Persic, Slavonic, Greek, Latin, and 
German ; so that it stands in the same relation to both, — a 
presumption of a very remote antiquity of no common kind. 

viii. Aham, the first person Singular in Sanskrit, is 
written in the last letter with an Anuswarah, or point over 
the line, which, though in this instance it is read as M, as 
frequently signifies N, and may be regarded in general as 
expressing any Nasal. Ha, the second letter, is frequently 
redundant and merely a sign of aspiration, and, as a final, 
I observe Sir W. Jones omits it more commonly than he 
writes it. If we retrench the letter Ha (h), and read the 



PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 337 

M as an N, with its vowel annexed, we shall have Ana, the 
first Pronoun Personal in Arabic and Chaldee, while one of 
the forms in Hebrew is Ani. Again, if we take the Hebrew 
Anochi, I, and read it in the natural order from right to left, 
the two first syllables, Ano, are very like the Sanskrit (as 
explained), the Arabic, and the Chaldee ; while there can be 
little doubt that the Chi is the Egyptian K, Anochi, Anok. 
If we read it from left to right, in the European manner, 
Chi becomes Ich, the German, and probably the English I ; 
unless the latter should be the Persic I, final, which is an- 
nexed to nouns as a mark of individuality. 

IX. The Egyptian first Person Plural Anon appears to be 
the root of the Hebrew Anachnoo, the Chaldee Anachna, 
the Arabic Nahn, the Sanskrit Nah (in the oblique case), 
and the Latin Nos. We recognise the Egyptian second 
Person Plural Anthoten, in the Hebrew second Person 
Plural Feminine Athten, and Athtenah. We trace the 
Sanskrit Twan, thou, in the Persic and Latin Tu, the Ger- 
man Du, and the English Thou, and the Sanskrit Sah, he, in 
the Latin Se. The Egyptian Indefinite Article Ou, appears 
to be cognate, if not identical, with the Persic Ao, pro- 
nounced O, he, she, it, and the Greek Ou, sui, illius, which 
is deficient in the Nominative Case ; while the Persic word 
as pronounced O, is a very probable etymology both of the 
Greek Article Masculine O, and O, the neuter of the 
Relative Os ; as the Oriental word, as we have just seen, is 
common to the three genders. 

x. As the Pronouns are words of more frequent occurrence, 
they have probably suffered more by contraction than any 
other part of speech, — a circumstance which renders any 
attempt to trace their etymology difficult in the same pro- 
portion. The first object of speech is the communication of 
ideas; the second their communication with the greatest 
possible rapidity. The former led to the invention of words, 
the latter to contractions of every sort, to enable speech, if 
possible, to keep pace with the flight of thought, imitating, 
not the example of Homer's Mercury, who added wings to 

z 



338 PRONOUNS AND ARTICLES. 

bis shoulders and feet when he wanted to travel with expe- 
dition, but that of the runners in the Olympic Games, who 
disencumbered themselves of their clothes. These con- 
tractions, however ingenious or beautiful in themselves, have, 
in every language, proved the most fruitful source of change, 
and the most formidable obstacle to etymology; and the 
latter traces the former, as JEetes did the flight of Medea, 
by the scattered limbs of Absyrtus with which she had 
strewed the way. 



339 



CHAP. XXX. 



ON VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 



I. In Greek and Latin the Participles have a Gender, which 
the persons of the Verb have not ; but in the Hebrew and 
its sister languages, or kindred dialects, the Arabic, the 
Chaldee, the Syriac, the Samaritan, and the Ethiopic, the 
contrary is the case. Here, with the exception of the First 
Person Singular, and the First and Third Person Plural, 
all the other Persons of the Verb are subject to the dis- 
tinctions of Gender. Is not this a strange anomaly ? Can 
we conceive of any practice more contrary to philosophy and 
the nature of things ? How invest words employed merely 
to signify action or being with the character of sex ? or how 
apply to them the distinctions of masculine and feminine 
by the most remote analogy? The real fact is, that the 
Hebrew, though not perhaps the oldest language in the 
world, nor even the oldest written language, is at the same 
time the , language of which the oldest written specimens 
have come down to us ; which have also been preserved most 
carefully, and consequently suffered least by the ravages of 
time, who is so truly characterised by the poet as " edax 
rerum." In Hebrew the Substantive character of the Verb, 
so to express myself, is clearly apparent. The Verb is really 
a Noun Substantive, with the Personal Pronouns annexed, 
contracted, and coalescing. The Third Person Singular of 
the Preterite is said to be the root of the Verb, under which 
it stands in the Lexicon, and after which follows an expla- 
nation of the meaning of the different Moods and Tenses. 

3! 2 



340 



VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 



Let us take, as an instance, the radical letters Lmd ( with 
the points Lamad), teaching. 



Verbal Root. 


Unaltered Pronoun. 


Abridged Form. 


Conjugation. 




Frey's Gram. p. 40. 


Ibid. p. 49. 


Ibid. p. 50. 


1. Lmd 


Aothi, me 


Thi 


Lmd-thi. 


2. Lmd 


Atht (fern.), thou 


T 


Lmd-t. 


2. Lmd 


Athtah (mas.), thou 


Ta 


Lmd-ta 


3. Lmd 


Hia (fern.), she 


H 


Lmd-h. 


3. Lmd 


Hoo 




Root unchanged 


1. Lmd 


Nachnoo, we 


Noo 


Lmd-noo. 


2. Lmd 


Athten (fern.), you 


Ten 


Lmd-ten. 


2. Lmd 


Athtem (mas.), you 


Tern 


Lmd-tem. 


3. Lmd 


Anthoou, they 
Coptic com. Gender. 


Ou 


Lmd-oo. 



II. It may, and no doubt will, be objected that we do not 
find the root Lmd, in Hebrew, as a Noun Substantive ; to 
which I reply, that in many instances, although we cannot 
find the root of the Yerb in the same language, we can trace 
it in another, and that in the present instance the Hebrew 
root appears to be cognate with the Arabic word Lamad, 
humility, submission. Let us take the Yerb Substantive 
Hajah, as exhibited in Masclef's Hebrew Grammar, without 
the points. 

Root Hajah, or Chayyah, life. (Gibbs's Gesenius, p. 190.) 



1. Hih 


Aothi, me 




Thi 


Hiithi. 


2. Hih 








Hiith. 


3. Hih 


Hia 




H 


Hith (fern.). 


3. Hih 








Root unchanged 


1. Hih 


Nachnoo 




Noo 


Hii-noo. 


2. Hih 


Athten (fem.) 


Ten 


Hii-ten. 


2. Hih 


Athtem (mas.) 


Tem 


Hii-tem. 


3. Hih 


Anthoou, they 


Ou 


Hi-oo. 




Copt, com- 


Gen. 







in. The Arabic is a more polished and cultivated, or, in 
other words, a more altered language than the Hebrew, and, 
as a necessary consequence, we cannot trace the Pronominal 
terminations of the verbs so clearly. The Greek and Latin 
are, perhaps, the most elegant languages the world has ever 
seen, and we can harldy trace them at all. 



VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 



34 i 



Verbal Root. 


Unaltered Pronoun. Contracted Form. 


Conjugation. 


Nsb, assistance. 










Savary's Gram. 270. 




Sav. Gram. p. 38. 




Dual. 






Nasar 


Entoma 

Plural. 


Toma 


Nasar-toma. 


1. Nasar 


Nahn 


Na 


Nasar-na. 


2. Nasar 


Entonn (fem.) 


Tonna 


Nasar-tonna. 


2. Nasar 


Entom (mas.) 


Tom 


Nasar-tom. 


3. Nasar 


Anthoou (mas.) 
Coptic. 


Ou 


Nasar-ou. 



iv. This principle holds good, then, in the Hebrew and its 
sister languages, the Arabic, the Chaldee, the Syriac, and the 
Samaritan. In all these, what we denominate the Verb was 
primarily a Nonn Substantive, and the verbal terminations are 
Personal Pronouns; and this circumstance being once per- 
ceived, we are at no further loss to account for the distinctions 
of masculine and feminine — at the first sight a strange anomaly 
to one just fresh from the languages of Greece and Rome. 
Nor is it only in the Shemitic languages that the Pronominal 
origin of the terminations of Verbs can be clearly traced. 
Dobrowsky, in his Slavonic grammar, says, in so many 
words, those Servile letters, which being added to the 
Radical syllable distinguish the persons of verbs, are nothing 
more than Personal Pronouns, either obsolete or such as are 
still in use, and which may, therefore, justly be called Per- 
sonal Affixes. (Dobrowsky, Institutiones Linguae Slavics 
Dialecti Yeteris, Vindobonje, 1822, 8vo. p. 396.) 

V. There is another distinct family of languages, of which 
I am at present disposed to regard the Egyptian as the 
oldest, if, indeed, it be not the mother of the Shemitic also, 
and consequently the origin of all ; and then the Sanskrit, 
Greek, Latin, and Mseso-Gothic, which latter is a sort of 
connecting link between the dead and living languages of 
Europe ; all of which, I believe, may be confidently traced 
to an Asiatic origin. I am forcibly impressed, in my philo- 
logical inquiries, by observing the uniformity of the march as 
it were of the human mind, in the composition of words, and 
in all the contrivances of language ; and find, that although 
an almost endless variety of sounds has been employed in 

z 3 



342 VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 

different countries to express the same ideas, every step of 
the intellectual process appears to have been the same, and 
that the minds of men have pointed to a common origin, even 
when their tongues have seemed most loudly to deny it. If 
the principle of the Substantive origin of Verbs is sound, as I 
believe, and if it be true that the latter class of words has 
only acquired a distinct and apparently totally different 
character, by the progress of society, the invention of alpha- 
betical writing, the cultivation of the science of grammar, 
and the refinements of literary composition, we ought to be 
able to find traces of this principle in all written languages ; 
though we must expect to find it less obvious in modern and 
derivative than in ancient and simple languages. The 
Greek Verb, both in the active and passive voices, is clearly 
compounded of a root or noun substantive, in some instances 
obsolete, and in others not, joined to the auxiliary verb To 
be. This fact becomes still more obvious when that root 
is a Latin word, as in Rege, the ablative of Rex, whence 
Reg-o, &c. 

Bamj fromBum ' Celtic ' 
•p x J- i. e. I was a king, or, I had ruled. . 
And in the Potential Mood 



Rex 

Essei 
Rex 



^by changing the first letter of the auxiliary Rex-issem. 



I the Future of the auxiliary, almost unchanged. 

The reader will remark that these etymologies do not in 
every instance give the precise signification ; but the meaning 
of Rexeram and Rexero was gradually fixed by prescription, 
as that of the root Rex had been previously ; but about the 
formation of most of the tenses of the Latin Verb, it appears 
to me there cannot be the smallest doubt. (See chap, xxxii. 
sect. 11.) 

vi. Many terminations of Greek Verbs may be plausibly 
accounted for in the Oriental languages ; as, for instance, 

Phemi, I say ; Phom (Hebrew), a mouth. 

i, Pronominal affix, my, i. e. my mouth. 
Ago, I lead ; Ak (Persic), a head or chief. 

o, contracted from Jo or Go, Egyptian J 



VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 343 

Lambano, I take ; Lambhi (Sanskrit), cause to obtain ; with 

Ani (Hebrew), I. 

Ana (Ckaldee), I. 
Bouloimen, Present of the Optative Mood of Boulomai. 

Boule (Greek), the will. 

Men (Persic), I. 

VII. Enough has been said to prove to my own satisfaction, 
without a shadow of doubt, the Substantive origin of Verbs, 
Participles, Adjectives, Pronouns, Articles, and all those va- 
rying parts of speech to which grammarians apply the terms 
of Conjugation and Declension ; but as I cannot expect other 
persons to see with my eyes, this theory will be much more 
easily received if we can trace, with a greater degree of clear- 
ness and circumstantiality, the different steps of the process 
by which Nouns gradually lost or put off their substantive 
character, and were converted into Verbs. 

Let us take the Hebrew and Syriac word Bar ; the literal 
meaning is a Son; but it is applied to such a variety of 
objects, and by such a multiplicity and diversity of metaphors, 
that its first and peculiar relation, that of paternity and 
filiation, disappears, and is exchanged for the more wide and 
general one of production or causality. 

In Hebrew we have — 

Barzel, iron, from Bar, a son, and Tzail, shadow, darkness, from its 
being dug out of the mine. 

The son of 500 years, for a man 500 years old ; i. e. the revolution of 
500 years having caused him to be what he is. Gen. v. 32. 

The son of the threshing-floor, i. e. corn. 

The sons of suretyship, i. e. hostages. 2 Kings xiv. 14. 

In the three above instances the word Ben is used in the Hebrew text ; 
but Bar might have been in all. 

In Schaff's Syriac Lexicon under the word Bar we find some of the 
following singular metaphors : 

The son of the roof, a lunatic, because confined to the house. 

The son of peace, i. e. a man of peace. 

The sons of a place, i. e. its inhabitants. 

The sons of the house, i. e. servants. 

The sons of the state, i. e. citizens. 

The sons of the kingdom, i. e. subjects. 

And in Arabic, under the word Ebn, all of which in Hebrew, Chaldee, 
and Syriac might have been expressed by Bar : 
The son of the way, i. e. a traveller. 
The son of the earth, i. e. a person unknown. 
The son of familiarity, i. e. an intimate friend. 

z 4 



344 VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 

The son of fruitfulness, i. e. a moonlight night, the moon being supposed 
by the Orientals to exert a great power on vegetation. 
The sons of the age, i. e. the moderns. 
The son of evil, i. e. misfortune, sorrow. 
The son of battle, i. e. a gallant soldier. 
The son of the sun, i. e. the dawn. 
The son of clouds, i. e. rain. 
The son of error, i. e. a worthless man. 
The son of overspreading clouds, i. e. cold. 
The son of the scabbard, i. e. a sword. 
The son of the night, i. e. the moon. 

Some of the metaphors in Arabic under the word Bint are highly 
poetical ; for instance we have — 

The daughter of the sea, i. e. a syren. 

The daughter of the mountain, i. e. echo. 

The daughter of the lip, i. e. speech. 

The daughter of reflection, i. e. prudence. 

The daughter of the grape, i. e. wine. 

The daughter of death, i. e. a fever. 

The daughter of fire, i e. flame. 

The daughters of the earth, i. e. rivulets. 

The daughters of the eyes, i. e. tears. 

The daughters of pastime, i. e. strings of a musical instrument. 

The daughters of the night, i. e. dreams. 

The daughters of the deep, i. e. fish. 

The daughters of the breast, i. e. cares. 

After the words Bar, Ben, Ebn, and Bint, had been ap- 
plied to so many purposes, and by so many and widely 
different metaphors, the first and literal relation of paternity 
and filiation would disappear, and be succeeded by that of 
cause and effect. Man can form no adequate idea of creation 
or the production of something out of nothing, because he 
sees nothing analogous to such a process in the physical 
world without him ; nor is he conscious of anything similar 
taking place in the intellectual world within him. Nor, 
indeed, has he a clearer idea of destruction or annihilation, 
than he has of creation, whatever he may fancy to the 
contrary. In vegetation, for instance, the profusion of 
verdure, with which the earth is clad at the approach of 
spring, is called a new creation in popular language, and 
without any impropriety ; but the philosopher knows that the 
germ or rudiments of every plant were contained in the bud,- 
and that they have been developed and matured by the ap- 



VEEBS AND PARTICIPLES. 345 

plication of soil or manure, and the action of light, heat, air, 
and moisture. There has been a change of form, but no 
creation of substance ; the seed has become a plant indeed, 
but it has increased in bulk at the expense of the earth in 
which it was planted, and of the elementary or gaseous bodies 
by which it was surrounded ; or, in other words, a certain 
quantity of raw materials has assumed a new and beautiful 
form in the great and mysterious laboratory of Nature. And 
with respect to destruction, if we expose water to a heat of 
212 degrees, we know that it is converted into steam, and 
that if it be exposed to the heat long enough, the whole of the 
water will disappear, and, in popular phraseology, be destroyed. 
But it has merely changed its form, which it will re- assume 
when it parts with its heat, as may be proved by receiving 
the steam in a close vessel, where, if its heat be still further 
abstracted, it will become ice. But in all these states we 
have only a substance which in its middle temperature is 
water, and which the extremes of heat and cold convert into 
vapour or ice. Perhaps the most adequate, or rather least 
imperfect idea we can form of creation, must be collected 
from generation, over which a veil of darkness rests in spite 
of the unwearied efforts and researches of physiology, and ac- 
cordingly we find that many of the ancient philosophers talked 
about the generation of the world. 

In Hebrew from Bar, a son, we have the verb Bara, to hew, form, 
produce, or create. 

And in Niphal, to be born. 

And in Syriac, from Bar, a son, Baro, he created. 

In many of the preceding metaphors we may say that iron 
is the son (Bar) of darkness, or that darkness (i. e. that of the 
mine) produced (Bara) iron ; that corn is the son (Bar) of the 
threshing floor, or that the threshing-floor produced (Bara) 
corn ; that echo is the daughter of the mountain, or that the 
mountain produced echo ; that speech is the daughter of the 
lip, or that the lip produced speech. In all these instances the 
transition from the noun substantive Bar, to the verb Bara, 
is so easy that it is almost insensible. 



346 



VERBS AND PARTICIPLES. 



VIII. In this way, I conceive, in all languages Verbs were 
gradually formed from Nouns, and I have shown that, in the 
Shemitic class at least, the terminations of Verbs were formed 
by contractions from Personal Pronouns, themselves primarily 
Nouns Substantive also. After the invention and general 
use of the art of writing, however, it became a matter of con- 
venience, not to say necessity, to be able to distinguish, at a 
glance, Nouns from Verbs, and for this purpose two different 
sets of Pronouns were connected with them ; thus, — 



Noun. 


Nominal Affix. 


Verb. 


Verbal Affix. 


Bar, a son 


I, my 


Bara 


Othi, Thi. 




Cha, thy 




Athtah, Ta. 




Hoo, his 








Noo, our 




Nachnoo, Noo. 




Chein, your (mas.) 




Athtem, Tern. 




Chen, your (fern.) 




Athten, Ten. 




Hem, their (mas.) 








Hen, their (fern.) 




fAnthoou "1 ^ 
{ Coptic) 00 



The first set of Affixes are said to be Possessive, and the 
second, Personal Pronouns ; but it is more than probable 
that I (my) is the final letter of Aothi, the last syllable of 
which, Thi, forms the termination of the first person of Verbs 
Noo, our, and Noo the termination of the first person plural 
of the Verb, we, are precisely the same, and Bari, my son, 
Barcha, thy son, might have signified, I created, thou createdst ; 
in fact, as has already been remarked, Phomi, my mouth, in 
Hebrew, appears to be the etymology of Phemi, I speak, in 
Greek. In Coptic we have Jo, the head, a Noun Substantive, 
and with precisely the same letters, Jo, a Verb, to speak, or 
tell, almost all the organs of speech being placed in the 
head. 



347 



CHAP. XXXI. 



ON PARTICLES. 



I. In every language, after having gone through the declinable 
parts of speech, Nouns Substantive and Adjective, Pronouns, 
Articles, Verbs and Participles, we come to the indeclinable, 
the Prepositions, Conjunctions, Adverbs, and Interjections, 
which are classed together under the general name of 
Particles. 

I have long pitied the condition of these unfortunate and 
ill-used little people, and determined in my heart to attempt 
to do something for them. One would suppose that the 
Indian Menu, to whom the division of the community into 
castes has been attributed, had been the earliest grammarian, 
and that his example had been universally followed; for while 
Verbs and Participles may be said to represent the Braminical 
or Sacerdotal, Nouns Substantive and Adjective the Ksha- 
triya or Military, and Pronouns and Articles the Vaisya 
or commercial class ; the unfortunate Particles have been 
huddled together in the Sudra, or servile class, if they may 
not with more strict propriety be said to be Parias, or out- 
casts, who once had a caste but have lost it. To prove that 
they had one, that they never deserved to lose it, and to 
restore them to their birthright, is the object of this chapter. 

Whenever I have contrasted the fortune of the Verb and 
the Noun, the Rema and the Onoma, the word and the name 
par excellence and emphatically of the Greek and Latin 
grammarians, with the degradation of the Particles, I have 
felt like JEneas at the commencement of his journey in the 
lower regions. 

" Constitit Ancliisa satus, et vestigia pressit ; 
Multa putans, sortemque aniino miseratus iniquamr 

Lib. vi. 1. 331, 



348 ON PARTICLES. 

Amidst all the instances of ill treatment inflicted on the 
Particles, perhaps none equals that of Mr. Harris in his Hermes, 
as recapitulated by Home Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley 
(vol. i. page 116.). Other, indeed all grammarians, have 
utterly denied their claims to be treated with any sort of 
respect or consideration, or, in fact, with common decency; 
but he has trifled with their hopes and fears with unexampled 
wantonness, excited expectations only to disappoint them, and 
raised the cup of bliss to their lips with one hand, merely to 
dash it to the ground with the other. He began by calling 
them " sounds significant " which must have filled them with 
joy, to be quickly succeeded by grief however, for he was 
pleased to add " devoid of signification;" but, lest they should 
utterly despair, he subjoined, "having yet some obscure kind 
of signification," and wound up the whole with an assertion 
so equivocal that it is extremely difficult to say whether it 
ought to be regarded as a compliment or an insult, "and 
serving to link together signification and no signification." 

It is by no means an easy matter to fix on any definite 
cause, why the particles from the very beginning of time 
should have been more cruelly treated than the Indian Parias, 
the Spartan Helots, the Thessalian Penesta3, the Irish by 
the English, the Poles by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and 
the Africans both by Europe and America. I have some- 
times thought that, as they never vary their appearance, they 
may be compared to persons who have only one suit of clothes ; 
for poverty though not always despicable is always despised. 
To be sure, If, At, To, and In, are of very diminutive 
stature, and appear to be incompetent to take their own part, 
which may have induced some to take liberties with them, as 
there is a proverb which says, it is useless to attempt to help 
those who will not help themselves ; but the same objection 
cannot be made to our i nevertheless' and f notwithstanding,'the 
French ( jusqu'aceque,' and above all the Italian ' conciossia- 
cosache,' "which is placed by Corticelli, one of the most 
accurate of their grammarians, in the list of Conjunctions. 
A regard to truth, however, obliges me to admit, that the 
Particles, by pressing it into their service, appear at first 



ON PARTICLES. 349 

sight to have acted with regard to it as gipsies do, who first 
steal children, and then disfigure them, lest they should be 
recognised and recovered by their natural parents, for Sia 
is palpably a Verb, and Cosa no less obviously a Noun. 
However, I am content to take this word, or rather combi- 
nation of words, as a type of all the rest, and intend to prove 
that all the Particles were originally Nouns and Verbs, and 
that many of them in all languages, more especially the 
Oriental, are so still. 

II. Egyptian. 

Ape, the head (Sahidic), a Noun Feminine. 

Aphe, „ (Coptic), „ 

Apa, from, Sanskrit. 

Apo and Apho, from, Greek. 

" Armed at point, exactly cap-a-pe." 

" From top to toe?" 

" My lord, from head to foot." Shaks. 

Home Tooke says, From means merely beginning, and nothing else. It 
is simply the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic Noun Fruni, beginning, origin, 
source, fountain, author. 

It is worthy of remark that the Persic word Sar, the literal name of 
the head, signifies, also, top, principio, origin ; and that Berashith, the first 
word in Genesis, may be analysed into B prefix in, Rosh, head, and Aith, 
time, literally in the head of time ; or, giving Rosh its proper metaphori- 
cal meaning, " in the beginning of time." There is not a shade of diffe- 
rence in the signification of the English word From, as applied either to 
place or time. 

Epi, numerus (Coptic), a Noun Feminine. 
Epi, Super (Greek), a Preposition. 

In compositione significat super et sub, augmentum, et dirninutionem ; 
but it always retains its primitive Egyptian meaning of number, with a 
subauditur of added to or taken from. The Egyptian word is written 
with eta ; and if the Greek epi, super, were written with eta, and epi, 
sub, with epsilon, all ambiguity would be removed. 

Ouei, distantia, longitudo. A Noun Masculine, Coptic. Item, longe 
fugere, abesse, distare. 

Away (English), an Adverb. " We must away all night." — Shaks. 
Henoufi, abundantia, Coptic. A Noun Masculine. 
Enough (English), an Adverb. 

This word is remarkable as exemplifying the tendency of all languages 
in their progress from rudeness to refinement to drop aspirates. Home 



350 ON PARTICLES. 

Tooke says, in Dutch Genoeg, from the Verb Genoegan, to content, to 
satisfy. S. Johnson cannot determine whether this word is a Substantive, 
an Adjective, or an Adverb , but he thinks it is all three. 

Dr. Johnson explains its meaning as follows: — " 1. In a sufficient 
measure, so as may satisfy, so as may suffice. 2. Something sufficient in 
greatness or excellence. 3. Something equal to a man's power or 
abilities. 4. In a sufficient degree. 5. It notes a slight augmentation 
of the positive degree. 6. Sometimes it notes diminution. 7. An excla- 
mation denoting fulness or satiety." In every one of these instances I 
believe, enough, will be found to be simply the Egyptian Noun, abundance. 

Nei (Coptic), time. 

Nun or Nu (Sanskrit), time. 

Nau, hora (Coptic), a Noun Masculine. 

Now (English), an Adverb of time. 

Nu (Maeso- Gothic), now. 

in. Hebrew. 

Achor, the back, the hinder part. A Noun. 

Achor, back, behind. An Adverb. 

-T..1 t j * j -u r fAith, time. A Noun. 

Ethmol, yesterday, an Adverb from ( Mol ; before A Preposition. 

Bain, interval, midst. A Noun. 

between. A Preposition. 
Baith, a house. A Noun. 

inside, within. An Adverb. 
From Yad, the hand (a Noun), we have 

Beday, with, by, in the hand of. 

Ley ad, near, at the side. 
From Yom, a day (a Noun), we have 

Biyom, now, i. e. B, prefix in, and Yom, day. 

Miyom, since, i. e. Min, from, and Yom, day. 
Yether, superfluity. A Noun. 

eminently, very much. An Adverb. 
Yothair, advantage, pre-eminence. A Noun. 

too much, over much. An Adverb. 
Yachad, union. A Noun. 

together, united together. An Adverb. 
Ad, time, duration. A Noun. 

unto, up to, even to. A Preposition. 
Yaan, purpose, aim. A Noun. 

because. A Conjunction. 

on account of. A Preposition. 
Sabib, a circuit. A Noun. 

round about. An Adverb. 
Ammah (Amh) union, connexion. A Noun. 

also, near by, against, over against. 
Im (Am), connexion, union. A Noun. 

also, with, together with, in conjunction \§ith. A Preposition. 



ON PARTICLES. 351 

Aith, time. A Noun. 

a long time. An Adverb. 
Athi, present. 
Athah, now. 

IV. Arabic. 

Kabl, the anterior part, the front. A Noun. 

also, before. An Adverb. 
Fib, the mouth. A Noun. 
Fi, in, into, among. 
Akab, the heel. A Noun. 

after, behind, either as to time or place. 

V. Persic. 
Wila, time. A Noun. 

Wila, Vila, or Bila, time, Sanskrit. 
While (English), time. A Noun. 

as long as. An Adverb. 
Pai, the heel. A Noun, 
behind, after. 

VI. Greek, 

Am, connexion, union (Hebrew and Arabic). A Noun. 

Ama (Ethiopic), with. 

Ama (Greek), with. 

Home Tooke says the English preposition With is the Imperative of 
the Maeso-Gothic and Anglo-Saxon verb Withan, to join. 

Eime, Nisi, i. e. Ei, Imperative of Eimi ; Me, Negative Particle, from 
Ma (Arabic), no, not. 

Analogies. 
Aada (Arabic), avert. 
Aadan (Arabic), besides, except. 
Except (English), i. e. Ex (Latin), out ; Captus (Latin), taken. 

vii. Latin. 

Ad (Hebrew), time, duration. A Noun. 

(Latin), unto, until. An Adverb of Time. 

Ad Grsecas Calendas ; i. e. the time of the Greek Calends ; but as there 
was no such time, it was equivalent to saying a thing would never be 
done at all. 

Dam (Persic), time. A Noun. 

Dum (Latin), while, whilst. An Adverb of Time. 

" Nee me meminisse pigebit Elisas, 
Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus," — 

says iEneas ; that is, my gratitude shall last during the time I remember 
myself, during the time that life animates my body — 



352 ON PARTICLES. 

" Usque ego postera 
Crescam laude recens, dam Capitolium 
Scandet cum tacita virgine Pontifex," — 

says Horace, in the last Ode of the third book. The prophecy was a 
bold one, but it has been amply fulfilled. " Almighty Rome" is fallen, 
and the ascent to the Capitol is facilitated by the heaps of the ruins of 
her " chief relics," which have raised the level of the ground ; the ancient 
system of faith is passed away, and a very different Pontifex Maximus, 
with Vestal Virgins of a different order, now ascend the broad stairs ; the 
language in which Horace wrote is become a dead one, known only to a 
comparatively small number of scholars ; but the time is not yet arrived 
for consigning his works to oblivion, or impairing his well-merited 
fame. 



353 



CHAP. XXXII. 

ON INFLEXION. — GREEK AND LATIN NOUNS. — THE LATIN VERB. 

I. Under this head may be conveniently arranged all the 
changes made in that class of words denominated by gram- 
marians declinable, comprising Articles, Pronouns, Verbs, 
Participles, Nouns Substantive, and Nouns Adjective ; but as 
one chapter has already been devoted to pronouns and articles, 
and another to verbs and participles, this will be principally 
occupied by the consideration of Greek and Latin Nouns. 

Inflexion, when applied to Verbs, is usually distinguished 
by the term Conjugation, and when to Substantives and 
Adjectives, by that of Declension. The etymology of Con- 
jugation is the Latin verb Conjungo, which signifies a joining 
together, and the process is very justly denominated, as it 
always implies the union, or bringing into juxta-position of 
two different classes of words, in the Arabic family of lan- 
guage of a verbal root and a personal pronoun, and in the 
Sanskrit and its derivatives of a verbal root joined to the 
different moods and tenses of the auxiliary verb To be ; and 
before this chapter is concluded, my reader will perhaps be 
convinced that the term Conjugation might have been applied 
with quite as much propriety to the inflexion of nouns as of 
verbs, as all their changes and modifications of meaning are 
produced by the union of a root which never varies, with an 
article, or pronoun, whichever we choose to call it, which 
forms its termination in every number and case, letter by 
letter. 

II. Though this point may be said to have been susceptible 
of proof, at any period since the revival of learning and the 
invention of printing in the fifteenth century, it was only 
since the formation of the Asiatic Society, by Sir William 
Jones and his distinguished associates, that the subject has 

A A 



354 ON INFLEXION. 

been rendered capable of receiving a degree of illustration 
which disperses every cloud of darkness, and of being ex- 
hibited with a force of evidence that can scarcely fail to 
produce conviction ; as, until we were acquainted with the 
Sanskrit language, we could hardly be said to possess the 
power of tracing the Greek and Latin to their source. 

in. The reader will perceive, by referring to the lists of 
Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, Persic, and Sanskrit nouns, con- 
tained in the introduction, that the Greeks and Romans 
altered almost all the words which they borrowed from the 
Oriental languages, and not only this, but that they altered 
them all in the same way, the former by adding the ter- 
minations Os, As, E, and On, and the latter the terminations 
Us, Is, A, and Urn ; as, for instance, 

Mubhil (Arabic), setting at liberty. 

Mobil-is (Latin), Masculine and Feminine ; Mobile, Neuter. 

Nabil (Arabic), great, beautiful. 

Nobil-is (Latin), Masculine and Femine ; Nobile, Neuter. 

Parvva (Sanskrit), division. 

Parv-us, Parv-a, Parv-um (Latin), little, that which is divided. 

Nu (Sanskrit), Ne-os, Ne-a, Ne-on (Greek), new. 

Nava (Sanskrit),*] 

Nu U (2S^' \ ^ ov - us > Nov " a ' No ™ m ( Latin )> new - 
No (Persic),' j 

Uru (Sanskrit) ; Eur-us, Eur-eia, Eu-ru (Greek), broad. 
Dur (Sanskrit) ; Dur-us, Dur-a, Dur-um (Latin), hard. 

As we find the Arabic Mubhil and Nabil almost un- 
changed in the Latin neuter genders Mobile and Nobile, we 
should be led, from the first glance, to suspect that the ter- 
mination Is was added solely as a distinction of gender; but 
a more close inspection will convince us, that this at any rate 
was only one object among many, and that a much more im- 
portant end was intended to be effected by the European 
additions to Asiatic roots. The addition of the terminations 
09 and 7], to words derived from the Oriental languages into 
the Greek, is of such frequent occurrence, that there must 
have been some very special reason for it ; and a little farther 
examination will induce us to suspect that the cause lay much 



GREEK AND LATIN NOUNS. 355 

deeper than euphony, or a desire to gratify the ear ; or even 
than analogy, or a wish to indulge the mind in its love of 
system, order, and uniformity, from the discovery of which it 
hardly ever fails to derive pleasure, and that the circumstance 
throws considerable light on the formation and use of lan- 
guage itself. 

iv. To pursue this subject farther, with a probability of 
bringing it to a satisfactory conclusion, we must ascertain if 
any of these terminations of Greek and Latin nouns and ad- 
jectives, are to be found existing in the respective languages 
as distinct words, and there can be little doubt respecting 09, 
7), ov, he, she, it. The word bs occurs once in Homer, and 
once only I believe, as a personal pronoun, where it supplies 
the place of ovtos, and that is in the triumphant speech of 
Achilles over the dying Asteropasus, in the twenty-first book 
of the Iliad. Its meaning in this passage is fully admitted 
by Matthias, and attested by the Latin translation of Clarke, 
who has rendered it by Is. 

' A\\a Kol oq ctiooiici Aibg /.ityaXoio Kspavvuv. 

Sed et is metuit Jo vis magni fulmen. 1. 198. 

And Jones, in his Greek Grammar, says the Attic writers 
sometimes use 69 for avrbs, he ; 69 scpy, 6s sXsys, he said. If 
we turn to the Greek declensions of substantives, with a clear 
knowledge of the simple form of the Asiatic roots, we shall 
perceive, beyond the possibility of doubt, that these roots 
never change either their shape or their meaning ; that the 
different cases are not formed by, but in fact are, letter by 
letter, this, to a certain extent, obsolete pronoun, and that, as 
a matter of course, all the modifications of signification are 
produced by its instrumentality ; in a word, that this pronoun 
stands in precisely the same relation to the Greek noun, as 
the auxiliary To be, in its various forms of sat, so/iai, and sl/M 
does to the Greek verb. 

v. The Port Royal and Eton Greek Grammars exhibit 
ten declensions of substantives, five of simple and five of 
contracted nouns. That of Valpy arranges the whole under 
three only, answering to the three first declensions of the 

A a 2 



356 ON INFLEXION. 

Latin, which is also the arrangement of that of Jones. The 
excellent Greek grammar of Moor has three declensions of 
simple and three of contracted nouns. My own view of the 
subject is, that there are but three regular declensions of the 
Greek noun, and that they are neither more nor less, because 
the formative pronoun has but three terminations, os, 77, ov, 
which when we have committed to memory we have ac- 
quired a large proportion of the terminations of all the nouns 
in the Greek language, and at the same time have gained a 
perfectly clear idea of the modus significandi of all the rest ; 
as reasoning from analogy we cannot but come to the con- 
clusion, that they are all formed by the instrumentality of 
pronouns, in some instances partially, and in others totally 
obsolete. The first perfectly regular declension is of nouns 
masculine, terminating in os, the second of nouns feminine 
terminating in 77, and the third of nouns neuter terminating 
in ov ; and by exhibiting three roots of substantives distinct 
from their terminations, we shall perceive that the latter are, 
in every number and every case, the pronoun 09, and its de- 
rivatives, letter by letter. 

Ok (Sanskrit), a Biliteral, pronounced Oka, a house. 

Oik-oq (Greek), a house. 

Lok (Sanskrit), a Triliteral, pronounced Loka, a letter, an epistle. 

Aoy-og (Greek), a word. 

Singular. Dual. Plural. 



N. 


oac-og 


N. A. 


OlK-it) 


N. 


OIK-Ol 


G. 


OIK-OV 


G. D. 


OIK-OtV 


G. 


OIK-OJV 


D. 


OIK-d) 






D. 


OIK-OIQ 


A. 


OIK-OV 






A. 


oiK-ovg 



Kalam (Sanskrit), a Triliteral, pronounced Kalama, a pen, a reed. 
KaAajiw/, Greek. 

Samayog (Sanskrit), pronounced Samayoga, an union, an assemblage. 
Swaywy-?/ (Greek), a synagogue. 



N. 


KaXaf-i-T] 


~N. A. KaXafi-a 


N. 


KaXcifx-ai. 


G. 


icaXafJi-rjg 


G. D. KaXafx-mv 


G. 


KaXajx-ojv. 


D. 


KaXa}x~i] 




D. 


KaXafi-aig. 


A. 


KaXajX-r]v 


to £vXov, wood. 


A. 


KaXaji-ag. 


N. 


ZuX-ov 


N. A. gwX-w 


N. 


gv\-a 


G. 


'ivX-ov 


G. D. lv\-oiv 


G. 


z,vX-(tiv 


D. 


%vX-(x) 




D, 


ZvX-oig 


A. 


i-vX-ov 




A. 


ZvX-a. 



GREEK AND LATIN NOUNS. 357 

In declining the three Noun Substantives, oiko?, a house, 
KaXafjbr], a reed, and ^vXov, wood, we have written all the 
Cases of the obsolete Pronoun, os, rj, ov, he she, it ; and in 
every instance, as often as we have written a case, we have 
written the root unchanged. This Pronoun differs from 
the relative 09, only in the neuter gender of the singular 
number thus (vide Valpy's Greek Grammar, p. 34.; and 
Vincent's Greek Verb analysed, p. 9.) : — 

The Pronoun og, v, ov, he, she, it. 

Singular. Dual. Plural. 

N. oq i) ov 1ST. A. io a w N. oi at a 

Gr. ov r]Q ov (jr. D. oiv aiv oiv Gc. u>v cov wv 

D. w Yj w D. oiq cag oig 

A. ov 7]v ov A. ovg ag a. 

VI. As there cannot be a doubt respecting the mode of 
forming the above Declensions, which may be denominated 
regular, let us next see if we can throw any light on the for- 
mation of those which are irregular, or which increase in the 
Genitive case. The meaning of the Hebrew word Aon, 
according to Gibbs's Gesenius, is strength, particularly the 
power of generation, and it appears to be the root both of the 
Greek Aion, and the Latin ^Evum. We have seen that the 
Greeks, when they borrowed a word from the Oriental lan- 
guages, generally added one of the terminations of the Pro- 
noun Os to it. In the present instance they did not do so, 
and therefore Os was disposable, and with it they formed 
the Genitive cucov, atcov-os. In the Hebrew text of Genesis 
xlix. 5, we find the word Mechairah, a sword or weapon, of 
the feminine gender, which the Greeks wrote Machaira. 
Having added no Pronominal termination they nevertheless 
formed the Genitive in As, ixayaip-as, which may be regarded 
as a dialectical variety of r\$. To the Coptic Meri, dies, they 
prefixed Eta, rendered the final Iota by Alpha, and formed 
the Genitive in As, Tj/juspa, rjfjbsp-as, the Doric form of the 
word being a/juspa, and the Ionic 7]\xzp7). To the Coptic Keli, 
the leg, they prefixed the aspirate Sigma, changed the final 
I into Os, and formed the Genitive in Eos, o-ksX-sos, which 
appears to be cognate with the Latin Ejus. From the 
Arabic Fim, the mouth, they formed Pheme, fame, that 

A A 3 



358 ON INFLEXION. 

which is spoken ; but having added a final Eta to the Oriental 
word, according to the general rule they formed the Genitive 
regularly in Es, cfrrj/jL-r], cf>7]/ji-7]9, all the terminations being the 
cases of the Pronoun rj. 

In some instances the oblique case of an Oriental word 
became the Nominative in Greek. In Persic we find Dam, 
a wife, which was formerly used as an English word in the 
same sense, Dame, with Pa, the mark of the oblique case 
Damra. By the transposition of Pa, the Greeks formed 
Damar in the Nominative, and Damar-tos in the Genitive 
case. The Tos, in this and many similar instances, appears 
to me to be the obsolete form of Os, which we know, from 
the authority of Eustathius, was used by the ancient Greeks. 

vii. The Eton Grammar gives the word \scos, populus, as 
an example of the fourth declension; but this form was 
peculiar to the Attic dialect, and in common Greek was 
\aos, and made \aov in the Genitive case, like Nouns 
masculine of the third declension. The fifth declension in 
the Eton Grammar, is of nouns which increase in the Geni- 
tive case ; some of which I believe may be accounted for in 
this way, — that as in the Irregular Verbs we find tenses 
derived from perfectly distinct roots which have no natural 
connection, except that they are arranged in the lexicon 
under one head for convenience of reference, so in the 
Irregular Nouns, or those which form the Genitive case, 
by annexing an additional syllable, the different cases are 
really perfectly distinct words, and may, in many instances, 
be traced to different languages, of which I shall proceed to 
give a few examples, which will tend to confirm the view I 
have taken of the subject, that the majority of Greek Nouns 
were originally formed from Asiatic roots by the addition of 
the obsolete pronouns 09, rj, ov, he, she, it, which primarily 
not only determined the Gender, but, by their changes of 
termination, produced all the modifications of meaning. For 
example, in the Chinese spoken language we find the word 
Pay, a foot, which in Persic is written Pai, and from which, 
by the addition of the obsolete pronoun os, the Greeks formed 



GREEK AND EATIN NOUNS. 359 

Pous, and the Romans Pes, both substantives of the Mascu- 
line Gender. But the word for foot in Sanskrit is Pada, 
and from this, by the addition of the same pronoun Os, the 
Greeks formed the Genitive case of Pous, Pod-os, and the 
Romans by the addition of Is, Ped-is. 



N. 7C0VQ 


Pes 


Persic Root. 


G. 7roS-og 


Ped-is 


Sanskrit Root. 


D. TTOiU 


Ped-i 


Sanskrit Root. 


A. -o?-a 


Ped-em 


Sanskrit Root. 


"V. TTOVQ 


Pes 


Persic Root. 




Ped-e 


Sanskrit Root. 



Where we may remark that the Nominative case, or the 
word which stands in the Lexicon as the root, is never re- 
sumed except in the Vocative case ; all the other oblique 
cases being formed from the Genitive. Again, in Greek we 
find the word Kleis, a key, which, as the corresponding 
Latin word is Clavis, was probably written primarily KXslFs, 
with medial Digamma, though the French word Cle, or Clef, 
appears to exhibit the Substantive root in its simple state, 
without the Pronominal termination. But the Persic word 
for key is in radical letters Klid, pronounced Kilid, to which 
the Greeks added the obsolete Pronoun Os, and formed the 
Genitive of KXsw, K\sl8-os; and we find, in Greek, verbs 
derived from both these roots, from Kleis, Kleio, and Klezo, 
and from Kleidos, Kleidoo. Once more, in Coptic, a lan- 
guage which certainly throws much light on the etymology 
of many Greek and Latin words, we find the verb Halai, 
to fly, a very probable derivation of the Latin Ala, a wing ; 
from which, by the addition of a Pronoun, we have Al-es, 
a bird, or that which flies, in which the wing is the principal 
instrument. But the Genitive of Ales is Alit-is, which ap- 
pears to be certainly derived from Halet, the literal Coptic 
word for a bird, and we have with the Pronominal termi- 
nation, 

N". Al-es, a bird, from Ala, a wing. 

G. Alit-is, a bird, from Halet, a bird. 

D. Alit-i, „ „ 

A. Alit-em, „ „ 

V. Al-es. 
Ab. Alit-e. 

A A 4 



360 ON INFLEXION. 

viii. There are in Greek many words terminating in 
R, which form their Genitive case from Nouns in As, 
among which is cjypsap, a well, in which the final letter is 
either altogether redundant, or a misreading for another and 
very different letter. I believe it is the latter ; as in Arabic 
we find the word Frat signifying fine sweet water, as well 
as the river Euphrates, the name of which in Hebrew 
becomes Phrat; and from (j)par } or cfypsar, in Greek, as a 
Nominative, we have the Genitive <f>psar-09, by the addition 
of the obsolete Pronoun o$, he. The Oriental etymology of 
this word is rendered probable by that of a kindred one ; as 
in Persic we have Dan, or Dana, a reservoir of water, which 
in Greek, with the usual Pronominal termination, becomes 
Danaus ; who in their mythology is said to have introduced 
the use of pumps into Greece, or a contrivance for raising 
water from wells ; and we recognise the root Dan, with ad- 
ditional vowels in the verb Diaino, I water. The word 
Ophis, a serpent, is given in the Eton Grammar as an ex- 
ample of the second declension of contracted Nouns. We 
know enough of the etymology of the word to be able to 
say, that the final Is is a Pronominal addition to some 
Asiatic root ; as in Arabic we find the word Afai, or Ifai, 
and in Coptic Haf, and Hfo, a serpent. The Latin Serpens 
comes from the Sanskrit Sarpa. If we write Ophis, thus, 

N. o<p-ig ; the termination appears to be the Latin Is, he. 

G. ocp-twQ „ „ „ Ejus (toe, Ionic). 

D. o$-ii „ „ „ Ei. 

A. 06-iv „ „ „ Eum. 

And in the plural number, 

N. ocp-eig ; the termination appears to be contracted from g<p-hq, they. 
G. o^-sojv „ „ „ (70-£a>}', of them. 

D. ocp-eoi „ „ „ (7<p-i(Ti, to them. 

A. ocp-ug „ „ „ <r<p-tac, them. 

If we take into account all the changes that the Pronoun 
afats must have undergone, in the course of time, from 
dialect, contraction, and poetical license, exercised sometimes 
from a regard to euphony, and sometimes with reference to 
the necessities of particular metres, we shall perhaps have 



GREEK AND LATIN NOUNS. 361 

accounted for the declensions of the Greek contracted Nouns, 
in a way which, if not altogether satisfactory, is the best 
that we can hope to attain. For acpLcn, we know that the 
poets sometimes used </>tv; and that for cr</>a<? the Dorians 
wrote i/rs. 

ix. There can be little doubt about deriving the Latin 
Regina, a queen, from the Sanskrit Pajni ; which, combined 
Avith Ea, she, the feminine of the Pronoun Is, Ea, Id, stands 
as under. 

N". Rajni, with Ea, she ; by transposition and contraction, Regin-a. 

G. „ 

D. „ 

A. „ Earn „ „ Regin-am. 

V. „ Ea „ „ Regin-a. 

Ab. „ Ea „ „ Regin-a. 

The formatives of the Genitive and Dative do not appear, 
because Ejus and Ei are common to three genders; but in 
the Plural we have 

Regin-ae literally, Queens, they. 

Regin-arum „ of them. 

Regin-is „ to them. 

Regin-as „ them. 

Reginae 

Regin-is „ from them. 

Ea is clearly the formative of the terminations of Latin 
Nouns of the first declension, like Musa, a song ; Is, of the 
second declension in the Masculine Gender, like Magister and 
Dominus, in the Plural number letter for letter with a slight 
contraction ; and Ea, in the Plural of the Neuter gender, 
like Pegna. Of Parens, a Noun of the third declension, 
increasing in the Genitive Case, the formative is clearly Ens, 
the active participle of the verb Esse, to be ; but as Parens 
does not seem to be so much formed by the instrumentality 
of the active participle, as to be an active participle itself, 
Pariens from Pario, or ilia quae parit, a mother, it will be 
necessary to say a few words respecting the origin and for- 
mation of the Latin Verb, and I will conclude this branch 
of my subject by exhibiting the mode in which the Latin 
relative pronoun Quis is formed from the unchanging 



N". Rajni, 


with Eae 


G. „ 


Earum 


D. „ 


Eis 


A. „ 


Eas 


v. „ 


Ese 


Ab. „ 


Eis 



362 ON INFLEXION. 

Coptic Ke, alius, alter, which appears to have passed into 
the former language in another shape, as the conjunction 
Que. The formative is the Latin Is, Ea, Id, — he, she, it. 

N". Ke-Is, by contraction, Quis Ke-Ea, Quae Ke-Id, Quid. 
G. Ke-Ejus „ Cujus. 

D. Ke-Ei „ Cui. 

A. Ke-Eum „ Quern Ke-Eani, Quani Ke-Id, Quid. 

Ab. Ke-Eo „ Quo Ke-Ea, Qua Ke-Eo, Quo. 

The Sanskrit Ki, or Chi, what, appears to be cognate not 
only with the Coptic Ke but also with the Latin Qui, and 
Italian Chi ; and perhaps all were derived from the Hebrew 
Chi (radical letters), life, or a living creature. 

x. I have already remarked that, in almost every language 
in which the derivation of the Verb Substantive is traceable, 
the meaning of the root is invariably that of life, time, or 
existence. The different persons of the Latin verb Sum 
are clearly referable to the two Persic forms Shum and Am. 
The third person singular Est is the Persic word Hast, 
being, existence ; but I am not aware that the third person 
Shund, or Shond, is significant in Persic; we find, however, 
in Coptic the word Sont, which approximates much more 
closely to the Latin Sunt, in the sense of creation. In all 
languages, not only the Verb Substantive but Verbs of 
every other description will, I believe, be found to have their 
root or origin in a JSToun ; a circumstance demonstrable in so 
many instances, as to be perfectly conclusive with respect to 
all. 

xi, That the Verb is formed from an unchanging root, 
joined to the different tenses of the auxiliary verb To be, 
is as clear in Latin as in Greek ; but as we have gone into 
the subject at such considerable length, in the chapter on 
Greece, it will be unnecessary to say much here. In the 
first place we have the verb Possum, I am able, formed from 
the obsolete Potis, able, possible, which Facciolati calls an 
indeclinable adjective, and the auxiliary verb Sum — in 
some persons of the present tense the t, and in others the s, 
of the root being dropped — Pos-sum, Pot-es, Pot-est, Pos- 



THE LATIN VERB. 363 

sumus, Pot-estis, Pos-sunt; Imperfect, Pot-eram, Pot-eras, 
Pot-erat, Pot-eramus, Pot-eratis, Pot-erant, where we have 
the Persons of Sum letter by letter, and this would appear 
to be the case in every part of the Roman Verb, but that 
some of the tenses of the auxiliary verb To be, have 
become obsolete in that language as well as in Greek, which 
it must be our first endeavour to restore ; and to escape the 
charge of building without a foundation, or inventing an 
imaginary one, I will first quote what Facciolati says on the 
subject, next trace the Latin roots to the Sanskrit, and then 
proceed to state the formatives of the different tenses of the 
Roman Verb throughout the four Conjugations of the Active 
Voice. 

xii. On the obsolete Latin verb Eo, to be, and to go, the 
formative of various tenses of Verbs of all the four Conjuga- 
tions. — 

Eo, is, ivi, et ii, itum. 

Ire, pro Esse, existere. 

Ens, Entis, Part. Frees., a verbo Sum. 

Fuam,-as,-at, pro Sim, vel Fuerim, ab antiquo Fuo pro Sum, a <bvu). 

Such is the account of Eo, and some of the obsolete Tenses 
of Sum, given by Facciolati, one of the very best lexico- 
graphers of the Latin language, and let us next try to what 
extent we can trace the roots of the two Verbs, in the 
different languages of Asia, and principally in the Sanskrit. 

I (Sanskrit), Dhato, or verbal root, signifying simply, go. 

I (Latin), Imperative of Eo, go, which is perhaps the only tense not 
united to an Auxiliary, and exhibiting the root in its pure and unmixed 
state. 

Ira (Sanskrit), Dhato, or Verbal Root, signifying simply, move. 

Ire (Latin), the Verb in the Infinitive Mood, signifying generally and 
indefinitely, to go. 

Re (Sahidic), to be, and to do. This verb, joined to the root, I, may 
form the Infinitive Ire At any rate it appears to be the formative of 
some Latin Verbs in the Infinite Mood ; as, for instance, Rege, Abl. of 
Rex, with Re, Rege-re, literally, to be a king, or to rule. Mai (Coptic), 
love, with A prefixed, and Re affixed, Amare, to love. 

Er (Coptic), to be, to do, perhaps Am-er (Latin), I may or can be 
loved. 

I-ens, Act. Part., going ; the Sanskrit Root, I, joined to the Act. Part, 
of Sum. 



364 OK INFLEXION. 

Ita (Sanskrit), go. Ituni and Iturus, Latin. 
Ito (Latin), I go often. It-ans, going. 
Aya (Sanskrit), go. Eo (Latin), Ew (Greek), I send. 
Bhu (Sanskrit), be. Joined with the auxiliary Eo, to be ; Fuo 
(Latin) ; ^vw, Greek. 

Bud (Persic), he was. Fuit (Latin), he was. 

xiii. Indicative Mood, Present Tense, 

Eo, I am ; Is, thou art ; It, he is. 

Imus, we are ; Itis, you are ; Eunt, they are. 

The Formative of Am-o, Mon-eo, Reg-o, and Aud-io, by contraction 
and changes of letters. 

Imperfect Tense. 

Ibam, I was ; Ibas, thou wast ; Ibat, he was. 

Ibamus, we were ; Ibatis, you were ; Ibant, they were. 

The formative of the Imperfect of Verbs of the first, 
second, and third conjugation, by assuming the Imperative 
as the root, and rejecting the initial I of the formative, Ama- 
bam, Mone-bam, Rege-bam. The fourth conjugation changes 
the initial I of the formative into E, as Audi-ebam. 

Perfect Tense. 

Ivi, I have been ; Ivisti, thou hast been ; Ivit, he has been. 

Ivimus, we have been ; Ivistis, you have been ; Iverunt, vel Ivere, they 

have been. 

Perfect Tense (second form). 

Ii, I have been ; Iisti, thou hast been ; lit, he has been, 

limus, we have been ; Iistis, you have been ; Ierunt, vel Iere, they 

have been. 
Ama, Imp. Mood, with Vi. Amavi, Perfect Tense, 1st Conjugation. 
Mon, Imp. Mood, with Yi, 1 T, r . ~ j n . 

read as Ui j Monm ' " 2nd Coil J u g atlon - 

Rex, Sub. Root, with I, Rexi, „ 3rd Conjugation. 

Audi, Imp. Mood, with Vi, Audivi, „ 4th Conjugation. 

Pluperfect Tense. 

Iveram, I had been; Iveras, thou hadst been ; Iverat,hehadbeen. 

Iveramus, we had been ; Iveratis, you had been ; Iverant, they had 

been. 

The formative of the first conjugation by assuming the 
Imperative as the root, and rejecting the initial I of Iveram, 
Ama-veram ; of the second, by reading the v as u, as Mon- 
ueram ; the third takes Eram, the Imperfect of Sum, Rex- 



THE LATIN VERB. 365 

eram ; and the fourth follows the first, as Audi, Imperative 
Mood, with veram, Audi-veram. 

Future Tense. 

Ibo, I shall or will be ; Ibis ; Ibit. 

Ibimus, we shall or will be ; Ibitis ; Ibunt. 

The formative of the Futures of the first and second Con- 
jugation, by assuming the Imperative as the root, and rejecting 
the initial I of the Auxiliary, as Ama~bo, Mone-bo. 

Future Tense (Second Form). 

Earn, I shall or will be ; Ees ; Eet. 

Eemus, we shall or will be ; Eetis ; Eent. 

The formative of the Futures of the third and fourth Con- 
jugations, by assuming the Imperative as the root, and re- 
jecting the initial E, of the Auxiliary, as Reg-am, Audi-am. 

Imperative Mood. 

I, Ito, be thou ; Eat, Ito, let him be. 
Eamus, let us be ; Ite, Itote, be ye ; Eant, Eunto, let them be. 

Although the Imperative of the Latin Yerb appears to be 
formed primarily from the Infinitive Mood simply by the 
rejection of the termination Re, as Ama-re, Mone-re, Rege- 
re, Audi-re, and I-re, it appears to me impossible to doubt 
that the Imperative of Eo, to be, with some changes of letters 
is the formative of all the other persons. As little can we 
doubt that the terminations of the Greek Imperative in the 
Active Voice twtts, tvitt-sto, are the tenses of the obsolete 
Eo), which, it will be observed, have a close resemblance to 
the above. 

xiv. Potential Mood, Present Tense. 

Earn, I may or can be ; Eas ; Eat. 

Eamus, we may or can be ; Eatis ; Eant. 

The formative of the Present Tense of the Potential 
Mood of the four Congugations, by assuming the Imperative 
as the root, and rejecting the initial E of the Auxiliary, except 
that in the first conjugation Am-em, appears to take the 
first letter of the Auxiliary, and drop the second. 



366 ON INFLEXION. 

Imperfect Tense. 

Erern, I might or could be, Eres, Eret. 

Eremus, we might or could be, Eretis, Erent. 

The formative of the Imperfect of the Potential of the 
four Conjugations, by assuming the Imperative as the root, 
and rejecting the initial E of the Auxiliary. 

Perfect Tense. 

We may either suppose an obsolete tense of Eo, Iverim, 
as the formative which dropped its initial I, and read its V 
as IT, after a consonant Ama-verim, Audi-verim, Mon- 
uerim, and in Rex-erim, both its initials, or take Fuerim the 
Perfect of Sim as the formative, reading the F as V, after 
a vowel and dropping U, and the U after a consonant 
dropping F, as Mon-uerim. 

Pluperfect Tense. 
We may either suppose an obsolete tense of Eo, Ivissem, 
or take Fuissem, the Pluperfect of Sim, as the formative, and 
the above observations will apply to both. 

Future Tense. 
We may either suppose an obsolete Tense of Eo, Ivero, 
or take Fuero, the Future of Sim, as the formative, and the 
same observations will still apply, but, take which formative 
we will, Rex-issem and Rex-ero drop two initial letters. 

General Observations. 

xv. Sum and its tenses in the Indicative, and Sim and 
its Tenses in the Potential Mood, appear to have been used 
by the Romans chiefly as the formatives of the Passive Yoice, 
joined to the Past Participle, while the Tenses of the Active 
Voice seem to have been formed by the instrumentality of 
the obsolete Auxiliary Yerb Eo, To be. It is remarkable 
how seldom we find Sum and Sim permanently combined 
with a verbal root as a formative in Latin. We recognize 
all the tenses both of the Indicative and Potential Mood in 
the Conjugation of Possum, and no where else that I recol- 



THE LATIN VERB. 367 

lect, unchanged, except that the initial F is every where 
dropped, Pot-ui, and not Potfui, Pot-ueram, Potuerim, Pot- 
uissem, and Pot-uero. 

XVI. There probably was a period, in the infancy of the 
Latin language, when Eram, the Imperfect of Sum, and 
Ibam the Imperfect of the obsolete Eo, to be, were identical ; 
and the different readings appear to have had their origin in 
an ambiguous letter, the R and B of the Phoenician alphabet, 
as given in Masclef's Samaritan Grammar and Dutens's 
Medals, being scarcely distinguishable ; and in the same 
way, I think, I have proved in the 18th Chapter that the 
word which has so long been read Ril, in the Etruscan 
inscriptions, is really Yik, a contraction for Viksit, or Yixit, 
the initial letter being not a Greek or Etruscan Rho, but a 
Phoenician Beth with the power of V, and the final one not 
Lambda but Kappa. The same remark will apply to Ero 
the future of Sum, and Ibo the Future of Eo. There was 
the same confusion between R and S, both in the early 
Greek and Roman alphabet ; and we have the express tes- 
timony of Varro, that Ero was anciently written Eso by the 
Romans, and Ecr&> it continued to be permanently among 
the Greeks, which was the regular Future of Ego, to be, 
and the formative of all the first Futures of the Active 
"Voice. 

xvn. Again, there is an analogy between Fui the Perfect 
of Sum, and Ivi and Ii, the Perfect of Eo. Ii appears to 
form Ivi by the insertion of the medial Digamma oFc. The 
Sanskrit Bhu, be, exist, has the appearance of having sup- 
plied several tenses to the Latin language, by dropping the 
aspirate H, and reading B as F, Fu. There was an ancient 
Fuo, I am, contracted from Fu, root, and Eo, Auxiliary ; 
Fui, I was, in Ennius Fuvi, from the same root, and the 
Perfect of the Auxiliary Eo. Fu-eram, Fu-erim, Fu-issem, 
or Fu-essem, and Fu-ero. The regular formative of the 
Latin Perfect was Yi after a root (the Imperative) termi- 
nating in a vowel, as Amavi, Audi-vi, and ui, ii, or i after a 
root terminating in a consonant, as Mon-ui, Yen-ii (from 



368 ON INFLEXION. 

Veneo to be sold) and Rex-i. In most cases, where the 
Perfect appears to be formed by si, the S I believe to have 
been part of an obsolete Present, as Qusero, Quseso, QuaBsivi, 
and Qusesii, to seek ; Uro, Usso, Ussi, to burn ; Premo, 
Presso, Pressi, to press ; Hideo, Riseo, Risi, to laugh ; 
Suadeo, Suaseo, Suasi, to persuade ; Ardeo, Arseo, Arsi, to 
burn ; or the S has been dropped, for the sake of euphony, 
from the root actually in use in the Present Tense, and 
retained in the Perfect. In Mulceo, Mulsi, to sooth, the S of 
the Perfect represents the C of the Present ; the Roman C 
soft, having been primarily Sigma, and C hard, Kappa. 
Mulgeo, Mulsi, to milk, was probably originally written 
Mulgseo, Mulxi ; the gs being represented in the Perfect 
by the Roman X, which is here, and in many other in- 
stances the Greek letter Xi, that is gs or ks ; and when 
Mulgseo makes in the perfect Mulsi, the g of the root was 
dropped for the sake of euphony, and the s retained, which 
adheres to the final I of the Perfect, but is no essential part 
of it. The Poman G before a vowel sounds very much like 
C soft, which having been really in the first instance Sigma 
both in shape and power, the S in the Perfect of such Verbs 
as Tergeo, Tersi, to wipe off; Indulgeo, Indulsi, to indulge ; 
Algeo, Alsi, to be cold ; Fulgeo, Fulsi, to shine ; Turgeo, 
Tursi, to swell ; Urgeo, Ursi, to urge, appears to have been 
substituted as a letter of the same organ ; and the real forma- 
tive of the Perfect is not Si, but simply I, the Perfect of the 
obsolete Eo, to be. Jussi stands in grammars and dic- 
tionaries as the Perfect of Jubeo, but is really formed from 
an obsolete Jusso, as well as the Past Participle Jussus, and 
the Future in Pus, Jussurus. Haareo, to adhere, appears to 
make Haesi ; but the Present was no doubt originally written 
Hasso ; for in the early Greek and Poman alphabets, R and S 
were so inconveniently alike, that hundreds of instances 
might be adduced, in which they have been mistaken, mis- 
read, and substituted for each other. Maneo, to remain, 
appears to make Mansi in the Perfect ; but the existence of 
an obsolete Manseo is fully attested by the Noun Substan- 
tive Mansio, a remaining, — a word still in use ; so that the 



THE LATIN VERB. 369 

real formative of the Perfect is not Si, but I. Luceo, to 
shine, appears to make Luxi in the Perfect ; but as the root 
of the verb was the Noun, Lux, light, and the termination 
Eo, I am, the formative of the Perfect is not Xi, but I, the 
Perfect of Eo. We may say, if we please, that the Present 
Tense Luceo was formed from the Ablative case Luce, and 
the Perfect from the Nominative Lux ; but that will rather 
strengthen than impair my view of the subject. Cingo, to 
gird, is said to make Cinxi ; but the existence of an obsolete 
Cinxo is proved by the word Cinxia, an epithet of Juno who 
was supposed to preside at marriages, one of the material 
ceremonies of which consisted in investing the bride with a 
girdle, to be taken off by the husband. 



B B 



370 



CHAP. XXXIII. 



ON THE VOWELS OF THE SHEMITIC LANGUAGES, AS ILLUSTRATING 
THOSE OF GREEK AND LATIN, AND THE ORIGIN OF THE GREEK 
ASPIRATES OR BREATHINGS. 



I. The Vowels of the Shemitic languages, to which I have 
been led in the course of this work to devote a good deal of 
attention, induce me to offer a few observations on what, 
in Greek Grammar, are denominated the Aspirates, or 
Breathings, in the hope that by treating of the two subjects 
in connection some little light may be thrown on the latter, 
of which it appears to stand very much in need. 

ii. In an elaborate work of one of the most distinguished 
Greek scholars of our own times, the Analytical Essay on 
the Greek Alphabet, by Mr. Payne Knight, we meet with 
the following extraordinary assertion, which proves conclu- 
sively how slight his acquaintance was with any of the 
Asiatic languages, and how small a degree of confidence is 
to be reposed in any of his speculations connected with them. 
" None of the ancient Oriental alphabets had any Vowels 
except the Phoenician, and that had properly only two, the 
Aleph and the Ain." (p. 16.) This assertion, that the She- 
mitic languages are destitute of Vowels, is totally without 
foundation, and the exception in favour of the Phoenician is 
as singular; for unless we identify that language with the 
Samaritan Pentateuch, we can hardly be said to know any 
thing about it ; and the Samaritan alphabet agrees letter for 
letter with the Hebrew, the Chaldee, and the Syriac, as to 
name and order, and originally, probably, very nearly as to 
power also. Though the introduction of alphabetical writing 
into Greece by Cadmus the Phoenician, is pure mythology, 
the fact is not the less certain, that the Greeks and Romans 
derived all their letters from different Asiatic nations, 



VOWELS OP THE SHEMITIC LANGUAGES* 371 

most of which may be traced to their origin, almost beyond 
the possibility of doubt. Many of them have been already 
pointed out in the chapter on Greece, leaving little to be 
added in this place beyond a few words respecting the Vowels. 

in. The Samaritan or Phoenician Aleph is the Greek and 
Roman A, both as to name and power. 

The Samaritan He, the fifth letter of that alphabet, as 
arranged in Masclef's Samaritan Grammar, is the undoubted 
prototype of the Greek Epsilon, and the Rornan E ; also the 
fifth letter in both alphabets. It will be recollected, that 
the ancient Greek name of this letter was not Epsilon, but 
Ei; and the original Phoenician name was always retained 
among the Romans, who do not appear ever to have made 
use of a double system of Vowels, but expressed a long 
syllable by writing all the common Vowels twice. Masclef, 
in his Hebrew Grammar, while he identifies Heth with the 
Greek Eta, regards Hay as having primarily corresponded 
with Epsilon ; although in the Hebrew language, as existing 
at present, it has the power of our H. The word ebony, 
however, is written in Hebrew with the letter Hay, and in 
Greek with Epsilon, with the Spiritus Lenis sftzvos. (Gibbs' 
Gesenius in voce.) 

IV. The Samaritan Heth, the eighth letter of that alphabet 
as arranged by Masclef, supplied both the name and form 
of the Greek Eta (in Coptic written Heta), and the form of 
the Roman H, the eighth letter also of the Latin alphabet ; 
but we do not find the European form in Masclef, but must 
refer for it to Dutens' Medals, and Lanzi's Saggio di Etrusca. 
And here the difficulty and confusion begin; for He and 
Heth in the Samaritan appear to have been no better defined 
and discriminated than Hay and Heth in the Hebrew alpha- 
bet, in which they are so liable to be mistaken for each 
other, that they have been confounded scores, not to say 
hundreds of times in the English translation of the Bible. 
Dutens gives this form H, with much hesitation, however, 
as one of the Phoenician He, the prototype of the Greek Ei, 
or Epsilon, and omits it under the letter Heth, where it 

B B 2 



372 VOWELS OF THE SHEMITIC LANGUAGES, 

ought unquestionably to have found a place. The more 
common form of the Phoenician Heth, however, is undoubtedly 
g, which Rose has very properly inserted in his Greek 
Inscriptions among the ancient forms of Eta, of which letter 
it assumes the common shape by losiug its upper and lower 
strokes, thus, — the ancient Eta 0, modern H. 

V. The common Syriac Yau O became the Greek Omicron, 
and the Roman O, at first probably with all its powers, that 
is both of a short and long Vowel, o, oo, and u ; and of a 
Consonant f, v, and w. The Greek words Oikos and Oinon, 
were probably pronounced originally like the Latin ones, 
Vicus and Vinum ; or, in other terms, represented the Con- 
sonant power of Van. Yau, the sixth letter of the Syriac 
alphabet, became eventually the Yowel Omicron in the 
Greek, and O in the Roman alphabet, after they had intro- 
duced Yau, the sixth letter of the Phoenician, or Samaritan 
alphabet (the Ou or Digamma of Dionysius of Halicar- 
nassus), with a Consonant power only ; that of F, in Latin, 
and of Digamma in JEolic Greek ; to which dialect it ap- 
pears to have been limited, and in that not to have retained 
a permanent place. 

vi. The Estrangolo, or old Syriac Yau A, reversed U 
Y, became Upsilon in Greek, with all the power of the 
original letter ; that is, it was both a vowel and a consonant, 
as Omicron had originally been, the consonant power of which 
appears to have been denoted eventually by an upright stroke, 
O vowel, (D consonant, and to have passed into the double 
letter <E>, Phi. The Romans, with more felicity, appear to 
have designated the vowel power of the old Syriac letter by 
their U, and its consonant one by their Y. Ouau, or Yau, 
the sixth letter of the Samaritan or Phoenician alphabet, 
passed into F, the sixth letter of the Roman alphabet, re- 
taining, however, its consonant power only. It passed also 
into the ^Eolic, or oldest Greek alphabet, in the form of the 
much disputed Digamma ; but w e cannot say, with the same 
degree of confidence as of the Latin F, that it retained 
merely its consonant power. In one part of his work, Mr. 



ILLUSTRATING THOSE OF GREEK AND LATIN. 373 

Payne Knight says, BA^IAEF^, afterwards BA2IAET2 ; 
but though so differently written it is by no means certain 
that the pronunciation of these two words was not precisely 
the same ; for F was primarily Vau, the sixth letter of the 
Phoenician alphabet, and T, Vau, the sixth letter of the Es- 
trangolo, or old Syriac alphabet; and both had originally 
both a vowel and consonant power. But what was the pre- 
cise power of Ouau or Vau, the sixth letter of all the 
Shemitic languages, which, under the name of Digamma, has 
provoked, and continues to provoke, so much controversy ? 
The Phoenician and Punic have passed away, and left hardly 
a trace of ever having existed ; the Hebrew is a dead lan- 
guage ; the Chaldee is a dead language ; and the Samaritan 
almost a dead language : but the Arabic still continues to be 
as widely spoken as almost any language in existence ; and of 
the letter Wau, which was formerly the sixth in that tongue, 
and still continues to denote six, Richardson, in his dictionary, 
remarks, that when used as a vowel it may be rendered by 
u, and sometimes, as in some Persic words, by o, and as a 
consonant by w, and, occasionally, by v. 

vii. The Hebrew Yood, which in that language has the 
power both of I and Y, and in Hebrew and Arabic signifies 
ten as well as in Greek, became in the Greek alphabet Iota 
(1) only ; but in the Roman retained both sounds with the 
additional advantage of being represented by distinct charac- 
ters, I and Y ; so that the Romans have six simple or short 
vowels, while the Greeks have only five. It is remarkable, 
however, that the Roman capital Y is one of the oldest forms 
of the Greek Upsilon, as given by Rose. 

viii. In spite of all that has been so often repeated, re- 
specting the primitive Greek alphabet consisting of no more 
than sixteen letters, there is every reason to believe that Eta, 
in its Oriental character of an aspirate, or the Roman H, is 
as old in the Greek language as Epsilon. Very little direct 
evidence can be produced on the subject ; but if the Sigsean 
Inscription is the oldest in the Greek language that can be 
relied on, as is generally supposed, as we find H as a simple 

B B 3 



374 VOWELS OF THE SHEMITIC LANGUAGES, 

aspirate in the older part of the inscription in the words Hai- 
sopos and Hadelphoi, and as a long vowel or a contracted 
mode of writing two Epsilons, in the more recent, the obvious 
conclusion is, that during the interval between these two 
parts of the inscription, whatever that may have been, the 
Phoenician or Samaritan letter Heth disappeared from the 
Greek alphabet, except so far as it continued to be repre- 
sented by the breathings, and was converted into a long 
vowel, or compendious way of writing two Epsilons ; and we 
are quite sure, from a fragment of Euripides, that it had be- 
come a common letter in the Greek alphabet before the 
archonship of Euclid, the period when it was finally and 
completely settled, as he has described it as forming part of 
the word Theseus. The Port Royal Greek Grammar says, 
^Hra, Eta, comes from the Old Syriac (Phoenician ?) Hetha, 
which is the same as Heth, the strongest Hebrew aspiration ; 
wherefore it signified formerly, as we have observed already, 
the aspiration in Greek, as H does in Latin. Thus we see 
HO ESTJN on the two Farnesian Columns, for 6 ianv, quod 
est : and Simonides is supposed to have put it for a long e for 
no other reason, but because, being obliged before to write 
two EE for that purpose, these two letters, turned one to- 
wards the other, E3j form almost the same figure as H. It 
is highly probable that the two Epsilons were at first written 
in this manner, and it is obvious at a glance that when they 
were written so carelessly as to touch each other, E3, they 
would no longer be distinguishable from the oldest form of 
the Phoenician Heth g, and the Greek aspirate H, its repre- 
sentative, and convenience, not to say necessity, imperatively 
required some new mark of aspiration, which from this period 
ceased to be denoted by a letter of the alphabet, and was 
signified by a contraction of some sort. 

ix. One of the fragments of Polybius makes distinct 
mention of the breathiDgs rough and smooth ; it is quite 
clear, therefore, that in his time they were denoted by ap- 
propriate characters, whatever those characters may have 
been, In connection with this subject, Mr. Payne Knight 



ILLUSTRATING THOSE OF GREEK AND LATIN. 375 

says the second Greek character (j-) for this simple aspirate 
(H) does not seem to have been in use till the other was 
appropriated to express another letter. An ancient Scholiast, 
cited by M. de Villoison, says that when the H became a 
vowel, it was divided into two letters, the first of which |- 
was employed to signify the aspirate, and the second H the 
slender or simple vowel sound. Quintilian and other old 
grammarians seem to have held the same opinion; so that 
there can be no doubt but that these marks were so em- 
ployed in the manuscripts of their times. There is, however, 
no instance of the ^ in any ancient manuscript now extant, 
or in any manuscript anterior to the ninth century, though 
the h occurs upon the medals of Tarentum, Heraclea, and 
Lesbos, and also on the Heraclean tables, and an earthern 
vase published with them by Mazochi, who has conjectured, 
with much ingenuity and probability, that these two notes 
were first employed in opposition to each other, to signify 
the thick and slender enunciation of tone by Aristophanes 
of Byzantium, the inventor of the accentual marks. The 
presents notes (') and (') are corruptions of them, which were 
gradually introduced to facilitate writing. (Greek Alphabet, 
p. 9.) 

And again, the ancient scholiasts and grammarians, indeed, 
who wrote so many ages after the two vowel aspirates had 
been both dropped from the alphabet, and the one wholly 
obliterated and disused, finding that which was retained in 
pronunciation signified, when signified at all, only by the 
inverted comma ('), confounded it with the accentual marks, 
and established certain whimsical rules of their own for af- 
fixing or omitting it. (Greek Alphabet, p. 41.) 

x. The excellent Greek Grammar of Moor says, " Spiritus 
Lenis tantum notat non adhibendum esse Asperum," which 
is repeated in that of Matthias, which on the whole must be 
regarded as one of the highest authorities in existence, and 
which says, " the spiritus lenis was an invention of the gram- 
marians. It denotes nothing more than the absence of the 
spiritus asper. The ancients used this latter, but not the 

B B 4 



376 

former." (Remarks, p. 42.) If this account of the Spiritus 
Lenis be well founded, its own absence is most devoutly to 
be wished, as it greatly increases the expense and labour of 
printing Greek Books, and is worse than useless, as it tends 
to confuse and fatigue the eye. But the whole account of 
the aspirates is a jumble of contradictions from first to last, 
and not to be relied on in the smallest degree. In Lanzi's 
Saggio di Lingua Etrusca, he calls |- an Oscan I, as well as 
-1, and the two characters would appear to have precisely 
the same value, and to differ only as the direction of the 
writing is from right to left, or from left to right. Thiersch 
says, originally the rough breathing alone was marked, and 
even this not always. On the other hand, upon vases of 
Magna Grascia are seen l-HPA, rHPAKAEHX ; and so 
hHPAKAEIAAS HSTIEIO in an inscription discovered in 
Calabria. Hence it appears that, by the Italian Greeks, \- 9 
the half H, was used as the mark of the aspirate. The 
grammarians added the other half -|, as a mark of the smooth 
breathing, and \- -{ passed through the forms L J into c ', after 
the twelfth century. (Page 45.) I cannot but express my 
conviction that the aspirates, as at present used in Greek 
Books, are equally useless and unmeaning. In "Gruter's 
Inscriptions " I find what appears to be the Roman name 
Herennius, written thus — 2ERENNL If this character -\ 
was the Roman H, what was f- ? (Tom. ii. p. 539.) 

xi. The mode of writing all the Shemitic languages, is 
indeed a contracted one ; but that contraction does not arise 
from necessity but from choice ; not from the want of 
vowels, for they have the same vowels and all the vowels of 
the European languages, as has been shown in this chapter, 
but from the idea that more is gained by rapid writing than 
is lost by imperfect expression, — a most fatal error, and per- 
haps decisive of the degree of civilisation to be attained by 
the race. Knowledge is power, and experience is the foun- 
dation of every thing deserving the name of knowledge. 
The results of experience cannot be preserved and trans- 
mitted, unless they are recorded in writing ; and accordingly 



ILLUSTRATING THOSE OF GREEK AND LATIN. 377 

we find that savage nations, who possess no mode of writing 
whatever, continue in the same condition, as to knowledge, 
century after century, and even from thousand years to 
thousand years. Hieroglyphics are very imperfect writing, 
but better than none at all, and they have enabled the 
Chinese to attain the rudiments of civilisation, but to make 
no considerable advances. To write the consonants of a 
language, omitting the greater part of the vowels, is a con- 
siderable improvement on hieroglyphics, but falls infinitely 
short of alphabetical writing as perfected and practised in 
Europe ; and accordingly we find that not one of the Shemitic 
nations has ever attained a high degree of learning and re- 
finement, and perhaps no nation professing the religion of 
the Koran at the present day can be compared with the 
Arabians of Bagdat under the Caliph Haroun Al Raschid, 
who was contemporary with Charlemagne. Not one literary 
work of the whole race has ever been generally read in 
Europe, with the single exception of the Old Testament of 
the Jews, and that from causes totally independent of its 
merits as a composition, and chiefly because it is the pre- 
cursor, and to a very considerable extent the foundation, of 
the Christian religion. 



378 



CHAP. XXXIV. 

ON PROSODY. — THE GREEK DRAMA. 

" Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians taught 
In Chorus or Iambick, teachers best 
Of moral prudence, with delight received 
In brief sententious precepts, while they treat 
Of Fate, and Chance, and Change in human life, 
High actions and high passions best describing." 

Paradise Regained, book iv. 

I. The subject of Quantity and Accent forms one among a 
very large class of questions which I have never ceased to 
regret was not brought before Sancho Panza for adjudication 
during his government of the island of Barataria, as I now 
see hardly a chance of its ever being satisfactorily settled. 
Always shrewd, sagacious, and sententious, I know of no 
governor of whom mention is made either by history or 
tradition, whose faculties experienced so prodigious an ex- 
pansion with an accession of dignity ; so much so that he ap- 
pears to be not merely "a most just judge," but "a second 
Daniel come to judgment," whose decree admits not of a 
shadow of doubt, and from whose decision there is no appeal. 
Most of the dissertations on Quantity and Accent, on 
the contrary, have been as unsatisfactory and interminable as 
the same Sancho Panza telling a story in his very worst 
vein. " I say, then," quoth Sancho, " that in a certain 
country town in Estramadura there lived a certain shepherd 
— goatherd, I should have said; which goatherd, as the story 
has it, was called Lope Huyz ; and this Lope Ruyz was in 
love with a shepherdess, whose name was Toralva ; the which 
shepherdess, whose name was Toralva, was the daughter of 

a wealthy grazier ; and this wealthy grazier " " If 

thou goest on at this rate," cried Don Quixote, (t and makest 
so many needless repetitions, thou wilt not have told thy 
story these two days." Fully conscious that I can add little 



ON PROSODY. — THE GREEK DRAMA. 379 

on this subject to what has been said already, I can only 
engage in the present chapter to be more influenced by the 
caution of the knight than the example of the squire. 

ii. If we were to judge solely from the present state of 
classical learning in Europe, and more especially in England, 
we should be obliged to come to the conclusion that there 
was something in the languages of Greece and Rome diffe- 
rent from every other language ever spoken or written by 
any other race of men — a consequence which it becomes con- 
tinually more and more difficult to admit, in proportion as 
our knowledge of languages is extended, and we observe the 
broad and close analogy which obtains throughout them ; for 
in no languages but the Greek and Latin does the prosody 
bear anything like such a relation to the whole body of the 
grammar, and in no other is the difficulty of acquiring an 
accurate knowledge of the meaning of the words of that 
language, as nothing, compared with the greater difficulty of 
remembering the quantity of all the syllables of which those 
words are composed. 

in. I shall, in the first instance, say a few words respect- 
ing the prosody of a few of the languages which have been 
most cultivated, and contain the greatest number of poetical 
compositions. Sir William Jones, whose authority on this 
subject few will be disposed to deny, informs us that the 
modern Persians borrowed their poetical measures from the 
Arabs, and that those of both nations have much in common 
with those of the Greeks and Romans. " As to their 
prosody," says he, " nothing can be more easy and simple ; 
their vowels Elif (a), Vau (o and u), and Ya (i and y) are 
long by nature ; the points which they commonly suppress 
are naturally short ; and every short syllable that ends with 
a consonant is long by position ; but the Persians, like other 
poets, have many licences; they often add «a short vowel 
which does not properly belong to the word, and they also 
shorten some long syllables at pleasure by omitting the 
vowels Elif, Vau, and Ya." (Persian Grammar, Works, vol. 
v. pp. 300. and 305.). 



380 OX PROSODY. 

Most of my readers are aware that the vowels are only 
partially written in most of the languages of Asia ; for it is 
equally a mistake to suppose that those languages contain 
no vowels, and that they are never written. The substance 
and general tenour of the above observations is, that when 
the vowels are understood in Persic they are short, and 
when expressed long ; but in either case there is never any 
difficulty about the quantity. 

iv. In the Sanskrit, which has much more in common 
than the Persic with the Greek and Latin, and has supplied 
both languages with an immense number of words, the pro- 
sody is so obvious, that, in Wilkins' Grammar no chapter is 
devoted to the subject, and if every thing connected with it 
was collected and concentrated out of the 662 quarto pages of 
which it is composed, I do not believe it would occupy six 
of those pages. Wilkins says, " the letter A (short) never 
makes its appearance but as an initial ; for when the sound 
of it is required after a consonant as a medial or final, it is 
pronounced with it as in the alphabet ; it being an invariable 
rule that every open consonant not followed by another 
vowel, must be pronounced as if A were written after it. 
A (long) should have the same sound as is given to the 
former, held twice the length." (Grammar, page 4.) 

The substance of this passage coincides in the main with 
the preceding extract from Sir William Jones that A, when 
understood, is always short in Sanskrit as well as in Persic ; 
but the Sanskrit has further done that regularly and com- 
pletely which the Greek at present attains only partially and 
imperfectly, and the Latin does not even attempt. It has 
two distinct sets of vowels, long and short ; so that there can 
be no more doubt about the quantity of a syllable than about 
the letters of which it is composed. 

v. There is another ancient language much nearer that of 
Greece than the Sanskrit ; I mean the Egyptian, which has 
as yet by no means excited the attention it deserves, and the 
scanty remains of which, if I am not much mistaken, outvalue 
all the hieroglyphics, that were ever carved on granite, a 



THE GREEK DRAMA. 381 

thousand times over. This language is written, for the most 
part, in Greek characters, as it contains the twenty-four 
Greek letters, with eight additional, many of which are 
peculiar to itself. 

Both in Egyptian and Sanskrit so many words are 
written indifferently either with the long or short vowels, 
as to raise a suspicion at least, whether or no, in the Greek 
and Latin, every word and every syllable had a determinate 
quantity long, or short, which never varied, like the laws of 
the Medes and Persians, except in poetry ; and that suspicion 
is increased in my mind by a passage in Cicero to the fol- 
lowing effect : — • 

VI. " In versu quidem theatra tota exclamant si fuit una 
syllaba brevior aut longior. Nee vero multitudo pedes novit, 
nee ullos numeros tenet ; nee illud quod offendit, aut cur, 
aut in quo offendat, intelligit : et tamen omnium longitudinum 
et brevitatum in sonis, sicut acutarum graviumque vocum, 
judicium ipsa natura in auribus nostris collocavit." (Orator. 
c. 5 ] .) Which may be thus translated : " At a dramatic repre- 
sentation, the whole audience will exclaim if a single syllable 
of any species of verse be made too long or too short. The 
multitude, however, knows nothing about poetical feet, or 
poetical numbers ; it neither understands what offends, nor 
why it offends, nor in what respect it offends; but nature 
herself placed in our ears the perception of all that is long 
and short in sounds, as well as of what is acute, or grave, in 
words." 

VII. If the multitude, that is the great majority of the 
audience, neither knew what offended, nor why it offended, 
nor in what respect it offended, why and at what did they 
exclaim? We must remember that Cicero is describing 
the most palmy state of Rome, at a period when knowledge 
had attained its maximum, and taste had not begun to decline ; 
and if, as we have been led to suppose, the quantity of every 
syllable in the Latin language was fixed, and either long or 
short, and if that quantify was matter of notoriety to every 
Roman, and regulated his pronunciation in common conver- 



382 ON PEOSODY. 

sation and the every day business of life, the obvious answer 
would be, that the audience was offended because the actor 
had been guilty of a false quantity by pronouncing as long a 
syllable that was short, or the contrary; but in that case 
Cicero could not have said that they did not know why they 
were offended, as the meanest individual in the audience could 
have stated the cause of offence in a single word. A Roman 
audience then, whatever may have been the case with a Greek 
one, had no such knowledge of prosody as we have been in 
the habit of ascribing to them, and the solution of the question 
is by no means so obvious as at first sight it appears to be, 
and cannot be adequately answered without reverting to the 
nature of the Roman, and casting a rapid glance on the origin 
of the Greek drama. 

viii. In no department of literature did the Romans dis- 
play so little originality as in their drama. They have left 
little worth reading, except the comedies of Terence, which 
if not a translation are at any rate a close imitation of those 
of Menander; and we cannot but come to the conclusion 
that with the substance they adopted also the forms of the 
Greek stage, to which we must repair for further infor- 
mation. 

Perhaps no subject can be mentioned which so finely illus- 
trates the progress and the powers, the greatness and the 
littleness, the strength and the weakness of the human mind, 
as the Greek drama ; when we consider its humble origin, its 
slow and gradual advance, and its ultimate perfection, and 
contrast the Sons; of the Goat, and the moveable theatre of 
Thespis (in no respect different from the stage of an English 
mountebank at a fair), with the Agamemnon, the Antigone, 
the Medea, and the other glorious master-pieces which suc- 
cessively delighted the ears, and captivated the hearts of the 
Athenians. 

ix. That humble origin, however, was completely decisive 
of the nature and form of the subsequent entertainment. 
The drama of Thespis was acted on an uncovered stage in 



THE GKEEK DKAMA. 383 

the open air, which precluded all shifting of scene and elabo- 
rate decorations ; and unity of place became one of the leading- 
conditions of the drama. If the stage was left empty for a 
moment, the amusement of the spectator was at an end, and 
hence the necessity of unity of time ; and as every thing was 
exposed to view, the scanty resources of the theatre, by 
rendering all intricacy of plot and complexity of component 
parts impossible, at the same time rendered unity of action 
imperative. 

The oldest tragedy was the Song of the Goat. The enter- 
tainment was essentially a musical one ; that chorus which 
we sometimes feel disposed to quarrel with as unnatural, and 
always to dismiss as unnecessary, as it was primarily the sole, 
invariably constituted a most important part of the business 
of the stage, and if we wish to understand what Greek 
tragedy in its most perfect state was, we must form our 
notions of it, not from Covent Garden, Drury Lane, or the 
Theatre Francais, but from the Opera House in the Hay- 
market, FAcademie de Musique at Paris, or the still more 
magnificent Scala at Milan.* 

x. Greek Tragedy, in fact, was the entertainment which 
we know by the name of Opera. The dialogue was the 
modern recitative, and the choral odes corresponded with the 
concerted pieces of the modern theatre, while such recitations 
as the following, in the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides, 
probably produced as great an effect and of the same kind as 
the solos of Pasta and Malibran. 

* " Phrynichus, says the Scholiast on this place, had a mighty name for 
making of songs ; but, in another place, he says the same thing of Phry- 
nichus, the son of Polyphradmon , who, according to Suidas, was Thes- 
pis's scholar. He was admired, says he, for the making of songs ; they 
cry him up for the composing of tunes, and he was before JEschylus. 
And can it be doubted then any longer but that the same person is 
meant? 'Tis a problem of Aristotle's, why did Phrynichus make more 
songs than any tragedian does now-a-days ? And he answers it ; was it, 
says he, because at that time the songs (sung by the chorus) in tragedies 
were more than the verses spoken by the actors f " (Bentley on Phalaris, 
vol.i. p. 311.) 



384 ON PROSODY. 

" Iphigenia. 

Ah, thou beaming lamp of day, 
Jove-born, bright, ethereal ray ; 
Other regions me await, 
Other life, and other fate ! 
Farewell, beauteous lamp of day ! 
Farewell, bright ethereal ray ! " 

Potter's Euripides, 1. 1672. 

xi. There is good reason to believe, that during the whole 
time of the performance of Greek and Koman tragedy the 
music was never silent, and that even the dialogue was de- 
claimed in measured time, and to some breach of time 

BETWEEN THE WORDS AND THE MUSIC I TAKE ClCERO 
TO ALLUDE IN THE PASSAGE I HAVE EXTRACTED, — a vio- 
lation which would be perfectly perceptible without a know- 
ledge of prosody, which he denies the audience to have 
possessed ; and if they did not possess a knowledge of long 
and short syllables, their pronunciation in common conver- 
sation could not by any possibility have been regulated by 
quantity, and must have been governed by accent as our own 
is, and that of all the rest of mankind ; as I feel an invincible 
repugnance to believe that any people ever spoke in recitative, 
except on the stage, — that in utterance one long syllable occu- 
pied precisely the time of two short ones, neither more nor 
less, and that, like a witch in one of Mr. Southey's poems 
whose name I have forgotten, " their speech was ever song." 

xn. We are assured that Homer and all the early Greek 
rhapsodists sung their compositions to the accompaniment 
of a rude and simple lyre, and, according to my idea, if there 
had been no music there could have been no prosody. This 
notion is supported by the common etymology of the latter 
word from Pros and Ode, song; theme, aeido, I sing. 
Prosody then is nothing more nor less, than a collection of 
those laws by the instrumentality of which, the length or 
duration of syllables is accommodated to the length or duration 
of musical notes. What was the Licentia Poetica, as prac- 
tised by Homer and the earliest rhapsodists? It must be 
remembered that their compositions were sung or recited to 
the accompaniment of a lyre, or some other musical instru- 



THE GREEK DRAMA. 385 

ment, and I believe the poet had the option of pronouncing 
all the vowels long or short as suited his convenience, to 
make his verse harmonize with the tune he was singing. 
Does not every singer still take the same liberty with every 
language spoken in Europe ? The words of a song with a 
musical accompaniment are hardly intelligible, because the 
accent and usual pronunciation are completely changed, the 
language being subordinate and a slave to the music. 

xiii. There are few subjects respecting which we are so 
completely ignorant as about the music of the Greeks ; for 
though we find whole pages in ancient authors filled with 
declamation, they convey very little real information. There 
is nothing definite *, nor am I aware that any specimen of 
musical notation of great antiquity is in existence. We 
hear indeed of the Phrygian, Lydian, and Dorian modes, 
without being much the wiser; but it appears to me im- 
possible to doubt that the different poetical measures were 
so many musical tunes*, of which, in the Heroic or Hexa- 
meter, the Dactyl and Spondee in the fifth and sixth places 
represented the general law, and the ad libitum in the 
first four feet the variations. Music is a sweet and fasci- 
nating but at the same time vague and indefinite language, 
which, though it possesses the power of exciting feelings, and 
determining their nature, whether gay or grave, lively or 
severe, never suggests distinct and continued trains of thought 

* " It was a good while after the invention of comedy and tragedy 
before that measure (the Iambic) was used in them. Aristotle assures 
us of this, as far as it concerns tragedy. The measure, says he, in 
tragedy, was changed from Tetrameters to Iambics. For at first they 
used Tetrameters, because the Trochaic foot is more proper for dancing. 
And the same reason will hold for comedy too ; because that as well as 
tragedy was at first nothing but a song performed by a chorus dancing 
to a pipe. It stands to reason, therefore, that there also the Tetrameter 
was used rather than the Iambic, which, as the same Aristotle observes, 
was fit for business rather than dancing, and for discourse rather than 
singing." (Bentley on Phalaris, vol. i. p. 249.) 

And again, " The same story is told by Jamblichus, who supplies us 
too with another, — that a young man of Taurominium being drunk, 
Pythagoras played him sober by a few tunes of grave Spondees.'''' (Bentley 
on Phalaris, vol. i. p. 233.) 

C C 



386 ON PROSODY. 

except when associated with words. All accounts concur in 
assuring us that the early Greek music possessed great power 
over the passions, which gradually declined in proportion as 
it advanced in refinement. As the earliest music was in- 
variably associated with words, we cannot but suspect that 
in this instance Polyhymnia has decked herself with the 
wreath to which her sister Poetry was fairly entitled. The 
characteristic of the infancy of music is sweet and simple 
melody ; of its maturity, elaborate and complicated harmony. 
The former easily allies itself with poetry, and imposes few 
restraints on the enthusiasm of the poet ; while the latter 
demands from the author such a minute and scrupulous 
attention to sounds, as to leave his mind little freedom to 
attend to things. No difficulties connected with the music 
could make such men as .ZEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides 
write nonsense ; but it had the effect of obliging them in 
their choral odes to resort to such inversions of language, and 
deviate so widely from the ordinary collocation of words, as 
to produce no inconsiderable degree of obscurity. 

^SfTT The history of Greek poetry is, to a great extent, the 
history of its music also. It is generally admitted that the 
poems of Homer, Hesiod, Archilochus, Terpander, Simonides, 
and Pindar, were sung or recited to a musical accompaniment ; 
and as to Tragedy it was altogether a musical entertaiument 
originating in a song in honour of Bacchus, and always 
retaining so much of its primitive character, that the dialogue, 
which on the French and English stage constitutes the very 
essence of Tragedy, on that of the Greeks, even in the age 
of Pericles, was regarded as no more than an accessory; 
Greek Tragedy and the Italian Opera being formed on the 
same model, as I have already remarked. Putting out of the 
question the miracles ascribed to the music of Orpheus, 
Amphion, and Linus, and consigning them to that mytho- 
logy of which they form a part, a considerable proficiency in 
music is attributed to many of the early Greek poets and 
legislators, — to TyrtaBus, to Archilochus, to Terpander, and 
to Solon. Polymnestes, Melanippides, Cinephias, and above 



THE GR.EEK DRAMA. 387 

all Timotheus of Miletus, who died two years before the 
birth of Alexander the Great, are mentioned by some with 
dislike as the innovators and corrupters, and by others with 
admiration as the inventors and improvers of Greek instru- 
mental music. (Barthelemy, Voyage d'Anacharsis.) 

xv. Regarding the principal Greek metres as so many 
musical tunes, I conceive that the great body of their prosody 
was formed by and proceeded pari passu with their music. 
It was not until a late period in Greece that instrumental 
music, independent of poetry or song, had any existence. In 
the early ages they were inseparable ; and indeed the very 
term lyrical poetry, or -that intended to be sung to the ac- 
companiment of a lyre, which comprehends so large a pro- 
portion of the whole body of Greek poetry, attests the 
closeness and universality of their union. When the poetical 
foot, known to us by the name of dactyl (from dactylos a 
finger, because it consists of one long and two short syllables) 
had been long associated in musical recitation with one long 
and two short notes, the length, or quantity, or time of its 
syllables was fixed or determined ; and in all subsequent 
musical compositions there was not the smallest hesitation 
about uniting such a poetical foot with such a musical com- 
bination. The anapaest, the very reverse of the dactyl, re- 
quired to be united to two short and one long musical notes ; 
the trochee to one long and one short musical note; the 
iambus the contrary ; the spondee to two long musical notes 
in succession ; the pyrrichius the reverse. The quantity of 
the syllables of all the words which had frequently formed 
part of musical compositions was fixed and determined ; their 
time being that of the musical note with which they were 
joined in singing or recitation ; and this quantity, once de- 
cided, was not suffered to be lost : indeed, as long as music 
continued to be the invariable associate of poetry, there was 
no chance that it should be so ; and even after the existence 
of instrumental music in Greece in a separate state, though 
lyrical poetry might be, and no doubt was, sometimes writ- 
ten without any immediate reference to a musical accom- 

c c 2 



388 ON PROSODY. 

paniment, it must have been obvious that it was susceptible 
of receiving such an accompaniment ; nor could there have 
been any hesitation as to the sort and character of the music, 
which any particular species of poetry was adapted to.* 

xvi. The two grand essentials of music are tune and time. 
By the former we understand that succession and combination 
of simple sounds which constitute the elements of the art, and 
by the latter their duration with reference to each other. 
The former is denoted by notes, which are read horizontally, 
and the latter by bars which are drawn perpendicularly. Any 
change in the time affects in the same degree the character 
of the tune, and any alteration in the order of the notes 
destroys the tune itself. Music, therefore, is essentially in- 
tractable ; and of any two things which do not assimilate, and 
must be made to agree, if the one cannot change, it is obvious 
that the other must. If the subject of the alliance between 
poetry and music had been brought before Sancho Panza 
while he w T as governor of Barataria (for there is hardly a 
question which, by the aid of those fictions in which the law 
delights, may not be brought into the judgment hall), that 



* " Having now examined the two species of the drama, comedy and 
tragedy, under different heads, we will next consider them under the 
general name of (what may be termed) orchestic poetry, or poetry ac- 
companied with dancing. For while all poetry which was necessarily 
attended with music was called lyric, that which was sung to accompany 
dances, frequently of large chorusses, has been called the Doric lyric 
poetry ; to which appellation it appears to be justly entitled, as in its 
various forms it always partakes more or less of the Doric dialect. 
Hence the terms Doric and Choral poetry may be used as synonymous, 
as generally songs for choral dances were composed in the Doric dialect ; 
and whenever the Doric dialect occurred in regular Lyric odes, they were 
generally for choral dances. Thus, for instance, Pindar, the master of 
the Dorian Lyric poetry, composed Scholia ; which, unlike the poems 
sung at feasts, were accompanied with dances, and contained more of the 
Doric dialect. Thus the dithyramb, so long as it belonged to the Doric 
lyric poetry, was also Antistrophic ; i. e. in a Choral form, or one adapted 
to dancing ; but after being new modelled by Crexus, Phrynis, and 
others, it ceased to be acted by Cyclic Chorusses, and its dialect, at the 
same time, underwent a total change. Chorusses were sung in the Doric 
dialect in the midst of the Attic drama, so peculiarly did the Choral 
dances seem to belong to the Dorians." (Muller's Dorians, vol. ii. p. 380.) 



THE GREEK DRAMA. 389 

model for the viceroys of all islands would probably have dis- 
posed of the matter in a twinkling, by observing that if two 
people ride upon the same horse, one of them must neces- 
sarily ride behind, and have supported this observation by 
at least one hundred other proverbs, all equally pithy and 
applicable. 

xvii. In the struggle between music and poetry there can 
be little doubt as to which has been riding behind; for in 
spite of all that has been said of the humanizing effects of the 
former, nothing can exceed the barbarity she has displayed 
towards her unfortunate sister, With a degree of violence 
and cruelty greater even than that attributed to Procrustes 
she has extended her on her iron bars, lengthened some 
syllables, and shortened others, dismissed vowels, changed 
consonants, and been guilty of so many mutilations, that she 
is frequently hardly recognizable as the same person. We 
have seen it was lamented in Greece, that with the progress 
of music she had gradually lost her power of impressing the 
mind, and touching the heart. That power, I believe, was 
derived, almost entirely, from the poetry with which she was 
associated ; for there cannot be the slightest doubt, that, in 
proportion as music becomes more complex, the greater will 
be the difficulty of writing a poetical accompaniment ; so much 
so, that every thing like poetry first disappears, and next 
every thing like common sense. The Italian is the most 
flexible language of Europe, and yet Italy has had no 
writers of operas of any reputation since Metastasio, and 
probably no man with poetical feelings would choose to com- 
pete with the difficulties of modern Italian music. 

xviii. I cannot refrain from saying a few words on the 
actual condition and future prospects of the English opera. 
During the last twenty-five or thirty years the drama has 
been declining, and the popularity it enjoyed in this country, 
from the times of Shakspeare to those of Sheridan, inter- 
rupted only by the temporary ascendancy of the Puritans, 
appears to have been transferred almost entirely to music. 
If the latter had gained what the former has lost, there 

c c 3 



390 ON PROSODY. 

would have been less to regret ; but tbis does not appear to 
have been by any means the case. Why is this? I fear 
the answer must be that the extensive prevalence of music 
in England, at present, is rather a fashion than a taste, — more 
a custom than a feeling ; and that while an Englishman re- 
pairs to the opera to lounge, to gossip, and to yawn, an 
Italian or a German visits the same place to listen, to 
compare, to appreciate, and to enjoy. Accordingly we find 
that this extraordinary patronage of music, as it is called, has 
exerted little beneficial effect on the art itself, that we have 
produced no great native composers, and that nothing de- 
serving the name of an English opera can be said to exist. 
One cause of this is, that music has been at once too am- 
bitious and too jealous; has dissolved that alliance with 
poetry, without whose assistance her triumphs at no time 
have ever been very splendid, and by engaging in efforts 
beyond her power, has been rewarded by success below her 
deserts. No musical opera can produce much effect on the 
public mind, unless it be founded on a play which possesses 
some dramatic merit, and is at least readable as a literary 
production; and I fear almost the last of this class was 
Sheridan's Duenna. The English composer for the stage, 
however, first produces his music, and then gets some very 
inferior writer to invent a story and write words for it ; and 
the execution is, as a matter of course, so wretched, that it 
would totally destroy the interest and attraction of music 
much finer than any that has ever been produced in 
this way. Many a composer, perfectly competent to produce 
beautiful music, has no poetical imagination to conceive an 
interesting story, and still less talents to adapt it to the 
stage. Music is an exquisite but ambiguous language, and 
should therefore be content to receive its form and colour 
from poetry, instead of attempting to impart them to the 
latter, and submit to be led without being ambitious of 
leading. Supposing the composer to commence his task 
with a well- written opera before him, his own imagination 
would be roused, his feelings excited, and his taste exerted 
to adapt sound to sense, melody to sentiment, and develop all 



THE GREEK DRAItfA. 391 

the resources of imitative harmony ; and the term English 
opera would cease to designate a composition only remark- 
able for the total absence of all the qualities which constitute 
dramatic excellence, — plot and character, nature and proba- 
bility, wit and humour, sense and sentiment. Another great 
defect of the composers of English operas is, that they have 
looked too much at the present low state of music in Italy, 
and trusted too little to their own feeling and invention ; and 
the consequent result has been an imitation of Italian rnusic 
with sufficient resemblance to preclude novelty, but not close 
enough to produce distinct character. I cannot but repeat 
the inquiry of the poet : — 

" O ! Music, sphere-descended maid, 
Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid ; 
Why, goddess, why, to us denied, 
Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside?" Collins'* Ode. 

With three or four theatres occasionally open in London 
for promenade concerts, it can only be by the extremity of 
bad management that there is as yet no theatre devoted ex- 
clusively to the English opera. Supposing a great native 
composer to arise, I believe the finest of the Greek tragedies, 
which are extremely well translated, might be produced on 
the English stage with splendid success. The management 
of the chorus would undoubtedly be a great, but not I think 
an insuperable, difficulty ; and, by dividing the piece into 
acts, room would be afforded for those changes of scenery 
which modern taste requires. Supposing any sort of equality 
to exist between the music, surely there could be no com- 
parison between the vapid and unmeaning trash commonly 
represented at the Italian Opera, and the best productions of 
.ZEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. As the English drama 
is unattractive, and the Italian opera unmeaning, the Greek 
tragedies, finely set to music, would perhaps exhibit that 
union between sound and sense, which would satisfy specta- 
tors of all classes, and give that stimulus to the stage of 
which it appears to stand in need. 

c c 4 



392 ON PROSODY. 

xix. Cicero, in the passage extracted from him, appears 
to be of opinion that nature herself has placed the power 
of distinguishing between long and short syllables, and grave 
and acute sounds, in the ears of mankind. If it ever was so, 
while we admire her liberality to ancient, we cannot but 
regret her parsimony to modern nations; for, according to 
the observations of a judge, whose competence to give a de- 
cisive opinion will be generally acquiesced in, such a faculty 
is very rarely to be met with at present. To avoid all 
chance of misrepresenting him I will quote his own words. 
"In the accentual pronunciation of the different languages 
of modern Europe, each pronounces the Greek and Latin 
words accordingly as words of the same number of syllables 
are usually pronounced in their own respective languages. 
Thus an Englishman pronounces the first syllable of the 
verb Cano, and of the adjective Canus, equally long ; and a 
Frenchman equally short ; though it be invariably long in 
the latter, and invariably short in the former. In conformity 
to the idiom of our own language we also arbitrarily alter 
the quantity of the first syllable of a word, when another 
is added to the end of it ; as in virum and virus, which are 
always pronounced as trochees ; while virumque and virusque 
are as invariably turned into amphibrachys. The first of 
the one is, however, uniformly short, and of the other uni- 
formly long. And again, Englishmen know the respective 
quantities of every word in the language, and of every foot 
in the verse ; and, therefore, immediately perceive a syllable 
out of its place ; but this perception is the result of acquired 
knowledge, and not of organic refinement. I remember 
a copy of Latin verses being shown to some learned men, in 
which the word gladius was employed as a dactyl; and 
they all instantly exclaimed against the writer as having no 
ear ; at the same time that each of them pronounced the 
first syllable of the word longer than almost any in the 
language. Had they accused the writer of want of know- 
ledge or memory, and themselves of want of ear, their 
censures would have been just." (Knight on Taste, pp. 131. 
and 134.) 



THE GREEK DRAMA. 393 

xx. Whatever may be thought of the origin of long and 
short syllables, and I believe that they derived their quantity 
from the musical notes with which they were associated in 
singing or recitation, (what are called the poetical metres 
being tunes, and prosody being a collection of those laws by 
means of which language was made to harmonise with music,) 
a more interesting because a more practical question to us is 
the most ancient mode in which the Greeks and Romans 
wrote, or expressed those long and short syllables. All 
accounts I think concur in representing the Greek alphabet 
as consisting primarily of sixteen letters only, — a statement 
which we can feel no difficulty about admitting, as it in fact 
never at any time contained more ; the double letters, the 
aspirates, and the long vowels, being merely contractions in 
writing, and adding nothing to, nor making the slightest 
alteration in, the powers, that is the vocal sounds of the 
language. Fully impressed with this conviction, we may 
dismiss the silly story of Palamedes and the siege of Troy 
without dwelling on it for a moment ; nor is that of Simonides 
and Callistratus of Samos entitled to much more attention, 
not because it is altogether without foundation, but that w T e 
have much better evidence ; for an observation of Plutarch, in 
his life of Aristides, would lead us to conclude that the 
Athenian alphabet was not finally settled by public authority 
until the Archonship of Euclid in the 94th Olympiad. The 
changes in the original sixteen letters were probably intro- 
duced gradually, and we have no means of tracing them. 
Mr. Payne Knight has taken a great deal of unnecessary 
pains to prove that Euripides used Eta, because he has de- 
scribed the form of the letter in a fragment of his Theseus. 
(Vide Euripidis Opera Omnia, Glasguas, 1821, torn. vii. p. 
677.) For what interest can we attach to this, when we know 
that the whole body of existing Greek literature, contained 
either in books or inscriptions, including the works of Homer 
and Hesiod, is written with the long vowels. There is, 
however, one exception; for in the Amy clean inscription, 
copied by Fourmont, and exhibited and commented on bv 
Lanzi in his Etruria, we find Epsilon written twice instead 



394 ON PROSODY. 

of Eta. The small Omega is palpably two Omicrons ; and if 
we had more Greek inscriptions of a remote antiquity there 
can be little or no doubt that we should find Alpha, Iota, 
and Upsilon written twice to express a long syllable, as well 
as Epsilon and Omicron. Their very Dames as short vowels 
necessarily infer the existence of long ones, Alpa, Sanskrit, 
little, Iota, Latin, a point or dot ; and U, with the Greek 
epithet, or adjunct, Psilon, little, or single. Lanzi says that 
the Etruscans expressed a long syllable by waiting a short 
vowel twice, and their example is almost conclusive as to the 
ancient Romans, of whom we have not a single inscription 
of a remote age in a genuine state, the existing Duilian one, 
according to Lanzi, not being older than the age of the em- 
peror Claudius. 

xxi. We have seen that in Persic and Sanskrit there is 
no more doubt about the length of a syllable than about the 
letters of which it is composed. The same certainly was the 
case with the ancient Greeks and Etruscans, and probably with 
the Romans. To express a short syllable they wrote a 
single vowel, and a long one two vowels; and when this 
mode of writing fell into disuse there can be no doubt that 
some other, quite as unequivocal and more expeditious, was 
resorted to. Let us just see what we do, or what we pretend 
to do. It has been calculated that a good Greek lexicon con- 
tains at least thirty thousand words, and Latin probably not 
fewer. To commit the meaning of all these to memory 
would suffice to gratify any ordinary ambition ; but not 
satisfied with this, we attempt to remember the quantity of 
all the syllables in both languages, amounting, probably, to 
thrice the number of words. As soon as the Greeks and 
Romans opened a book, and saw the letters of which a word 
was composed, they saw at the same time its quantity ; but 
we, disdaining all such assistance in a dead language, are 
referred in the first instance to Scapula's Lexicon, for the 
meaning of a word; next to Morell's Thesaurus, for the 
quantity of syllables of which it is composed ; and finally to 
Herman de Metris, to ascertain why they are long or short. 



THE GKEEK DRAMA. 395 

And what do we gain by all this at last ? When we know 
that a syllable is long or short, we only know that it was 
sung or recited with a long or short musical note in Ancient 
Greece, of which musical notes we neither know the names, 
nor, if we saw the characters themselves before our eyes, 
should we have the remotest ideas of the sounds they were 
intended to express. Prosody may by possibility be the 
most valuable of any species of knowledge ; I am very far 
from thinking that it is so ; but if it be, why not make every 
Greek and Latin book we open a memento of it, by placing 
the quantity of the syllables continually before our eyes by 
an improved method of printing, as is done in other ancient 
languages ? Why make the Esoteric part of Greek learning 
consist in a knowledge of that to which no such importance 
could by any possibility be attached, but for the contracted 
and imperfect mode in which Greek books have been printed 
since the revival of literature? When I reflect on the 
present advanced state of knowledge, which is becoming 
daily more and more disproportionate to the shortness of life, 
and recollect that six or eight years are devoted by the 
English aristocracy to acquiring a thorough acquaintance 
with long and short syllables at Eton, and that what is called 
the critical study of the Greek language, by a singular 
anomaly, in a great majority of instances, prevents the possi- 
bility of an intimate and comprehensive knowledge of Greek 
authors, I cannot but be of opinion that the most formidable 
idol which has been set up since the days of Lord Bacon is 
the idol of prosody, which I would gladly see consumed in 
the flames of the myriads of reams of paper which have been 
covered with nonsense verses, and deposited on its altar as 
votive offerings. 

xxii. It now only remains to add a few words, and adduce 
a few examples respecting the anomalies of prosody, for the 
purpose of confirming the view I have taken of the subject 
in the present chapter, tending to show that Prosody has 

ITS FOUNDATION, NOT IN THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE, 

but of Music, and that as none of the music of the Greeks 



396 OX PROSODY. 

and Romans has come down to us, and as syllables were 
long or short because they coincided, or were expressed, 
with long or short musical notes, the whole is matter of 
fact or authority, and not of nature or reason ; and that 
there is really little more to be done than to write in such a 
way that the quantity of all syllables may be discerned at a 
glance, which the Greeks and Romans did as long as their 
respective languages were living languages, but which all the 
nations of Europe, since the revival of learning and the 
invention of the art of printing, have perversely refused to 
do ; thereby entailing on themselves the necessity of com- 
mitting to memory the quantity of all the syllables of all the 
words in Greek and Latin. 

xxiii. The twenty-eighth chapter in Thiersch's Greek 
Grammar, entitled, " On the Measurement of Syllables," 
which coincides in substance with the first four rules in the 
prosody of the Eton Latin Grammar, really contains almost 
all the light that can be thrown on the quantity of syllables 
by considerations deduced solely from the nature of language; 
and few as those laws are we shall discover that the practice 
of the poets is almost as much an exemplification of their 
violation as of their observance. 

1. In the measurement of a syllable regard is had to its 
vowel and to the following consonant or consonants. The 
nature of syllables, in respect of length or shortness, is called 
their quantity (TrocroTqs, quantitas). 

2. A syllable is short when its vowel is single, or short 
(a, c, v, s, o,) and has a single consonant or no consonant 
following it ; sXl7tov, 66sv } 6 TroXvfyaros. 

3. A syllable is long by nature when its vowel is double ; 
i. e. either a long vowel (?7, co, a, I, v,) or a diphthong ; iroldv 
rj ravrdv r\ Kslvdv arsl^aj. 

4. It is long by position when it has a short vowel, but 
followed by more than one consonant; aakirh/^, 6%6o?, 
~%6po9. Thus a syllable acquires length always by means of 
something double or two-fold. 

Obs. The cases in which two consonants (a mute and a 



ON PROSODY. 397 

liquid) do not produce position, belong rather to the con- 
stitution of verse (music?), than of speech. They vary 
according to age and dialect, and for this reason appertain 
to the usage of the poets in respect of quantity and language. 

xxiv. From this luminous statement of Thiersch, let us 
turn for a moment to the excellent grammar of Valpy. He 
says, a syllable, in which a short or doubtful vowel precedes 
two consonants or a double letter, is long in every situation, 
and adds in a note, the exceptions to this rule take place 
when the latter consonant is a liquid (or in other words 
when the second consonant is not a consonant at all. In 
Sanskrit, L and K are regarded as vowels as well as con- 
sonants). 

He proceeds to remark, however, a short vowel is some- 
times made long before a single consonant, 'particularly before 
a liquid; as iroXXd \lct<to/jLsvco, napd prjyfjLivi. (Homer.) 

Here we cannot but remark that if a mute followed by a 
liquid cannot lengthen a short syllable, a single liquid, which 
in Sanskrit is sometimes a vowel, ought not to possess that 
power; and that if, under such circumstances a short vowel is 
lengthened, it must be from causes altogether extraneous to 
and independent of language. The works of Homer, and of 
all the tragic, comic, and lyric poets were originally recited 
with a musical accompaniment, and such syllables in Homer 
were long because they coincided, or were sung with a 
musical note which was long, and for no other reason. 
Long musical notes were the foundation of long syllables, 
and short musical notes of short ones. Prosody has its basis 
in music, and not in language, or in anything in the nature 
of language. All the early poetry of Greece was written 
with a view to its being sung; and when any syllable, or 
combination of letters, had frequently or generally been 
employed with a long note, it came eventually to be regarded 
as naturally long, and a short syllable the contrary ; but this 
was entirely from the association of ideas, and from nothing 
in the nature of language itself; and, accordingly, syllables 
which are long in Homer are short in the dramatic writers, 



398 ON PROSODY. 

and vice versa. As we are profoundly ignorant of Greek 
music, Ave have no musical associations with the syllables, 
and long or short is to us merely matter of authority with 
which the ear has nothing to do. 

xxv. From Yalpy let us cast a glance on the admirable 
grammar of Matthias, the latest and perhaps highest authority 
for the Greek language in general, and see what he has to 
say respecting its prosody. He begins by remarking that 
we learn the quantity of syllables from the poets ; but that 
every syllable was either long or short in ordinary pronun- 
ciation by nature (cpvosi)} long also by position (Ososi). That 
we must learn the quantity of syllables from the poets, if 
we wish to know them at all, there can be no doubt. If 
there had been no poets, or if their poems had not been 
sung to a musical accompaniment, I believe we should never 
have heard anything about long and short syllables ; and that 
consequently it is not true, that common conversation was 
regulated by a regard to quantity among the Greeks and 
Romans, more than among the rest of mankind. Like 
ourselves, they were probably governed in their ordinary 
pronunciation by accent solely ; but as none of the accentual 
marks in Greek books are older than the eleventh or twelfth 
century, they are of no authority whatever, and convey no 
information as to what that pronunciation was. Matthias 
proceeds to say, by nature r) and co are long ; s and o, short ; 
a, t, v, in some words long, in others short, or have a 
different measure in different dialects (and different poetical 
compositions). All diphthongs are also long by nature, as 
well as all contracted vowels (p. 51.) I believe the diffi- 
culties and obscurities of prosody, if they did not originate 
in, have at any rate been much augmented by, the intro- 
duction of the two long vowels Eta and Omega ; and that, 
if the Greek alphabet had been left in the same state, as to 
its vowels, as we find the Roman, Greek prosody would have 
presented no more difficulties than Latin. Musical time has 
its foundation in nature ; but poetical time has its foundation 
in music, and I doubt if it exists any where else. Let us 



ON PROSODY. 399 

suppose one of the songs of Anacreon, the Irish Melodies of 
antiquity, to have been set to a tune so popular that it was 
in every mouth, and ground on every hand-organ, if the 
Greeks had such machines. The score or musical notes 
would naturally be handed about in all directions, and we 
may be sure that the words would accompany them. When 
thus brought into juxta position, it is at least probable that 
the syllables which were sung long would be written long ; 
and the syllables sung short would be written short ; so that, 
if the Greeks had used our musical notation, and denoted a 
long musical note by the mark j , a crotchet, and a short by 
^r, a quaver, the former must always have coincided with, 
or been over ~, the mark of a long syllable, and the latter 
over % the mark of a short one. But we know from 
inscriptions that the Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans, to 
express a long syllable wrote all the vowels twice, and if this 
simple expedient had been uniformly and steadily carried 
out in the poetical compositions of antiquity which have 
descended to us, so far from there being any disputes about 
prosody at present, there would probably have been no such 
word in existence, as there would have been no such art to 
be studied. We know, however, that all the classical books 
existing in our libraries were printed from manuscripts of 
the middle ages, centuries after the ancient mode of writing 
Greek and Latin had been irrecoverably lost. Originally, 
however, it is highly probable that this mode of writing the 
vowels twice to express a long syllable was limited to 
poetry, and that the practice did not affect the common 
orthography, and that, although a long syllable, when con- 
joined with musical notation or a tune, would be written 
with two vowels to agree with the time or quantity of that 
tune, it did not at all interfere with the manner of 
spelling and writing the word for the ordinary purposes of 
life. As our own pronunciation is regulated by accent and 
not by quantity, w T e cannot be said to have any such thing 
as long and short syllables in English, in the sense in which 
the Greeks had them, and which I believe to have been their 



400 ON PEOSODY. 

musical quantity ; but if any one were to attempt to write 
the first line of the popular song from the Bohemian Girl, 
" I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls," in such a way as 
to represent the musical time, it is obvious that he must 
write the first syllable of marble with two aa's, maarble ; and 
our mode of writing would instantly assimilate itself to that 
of the Greeks and Romans as described, but of which very 
few specimens remain in existence. We have, however, 
various species of verse, regulated by fixed and definite laws. 
Our heroic verse, for instance, consists of ten syllables, and if 
the words composing a line in that metre happen to contain 
more, they must by elision, apostrophe, and the narrow 
resources of the licentia poetica, as practised by English 
poets, be reduced to that number. For example, our most 
correct and harmonious versifier, in the very first word of 
his incomparable translation of the Iliad, was under the 
necessity of writing and pronouncing Achilles' in, the genitive 
case precisely as he pronounced it in the nominative in the 
seventh line, 

" Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring." 

After two Epsilons, however, came to be denoted by the 
single character Eta, and two Omicrons by the single cha- 
racter Omega, it is probable that convenience caused this 
mode of writing to be adopted in prose as well as in verse ; 
and in the course of time words written in this way pre- 
sented the singular anomaly of a syllable with a long writing 
applied, or rather misapplied, by poetical necessity to denote 
a short quantity ; thus directly falsifying the information, 
it had been originally invented for the sole purpose of con- 
veying. 

xxvi. Valpy says, a long vowel or diphthong is generally 
shortened at the end, and sometimes at the beginning of a 
word before a vowel, as otfcoo sv, Homer ; irolzl, Sophocles ; 
7] ££>o£ sips?, Theocritus : and Matthiae, that long vowels and 
diphthongs of every kind are shortened by the epic and 
lyric writers, and by the tragedians in lvric passages ; and 
even that syllables in the same word are used both long and 



ON PROSODY. 401 

short in close connection, of which he adduces various 
examples from Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. 
Matthias makes the following singular admission, which I 
shall give in his own words: — " As it is scarcely credible that 
poetic licence should have extended to the arbitrary lengthen- 
ing of syllables to suit the metre, among a people possessed 
of so fine a sense for harmony and rhythm as is manifest even 
in the Homeric poems, it is not improbable that in the oldest 
times the quantity of the vowels, not only (a, i, u,) but also 
the E and O sounds (s and rj, o and «), was still inde- 
terminate IN ORDINARY PRONUNCIATION ; SO THAT 
THERE WAS NOTHING REMARKABLE IN THE POETS USING 
THE SAME SYLLABLE SOMETIMES AS LONG AND SOMETIMES 

AS short. This is the more conceivable in an age like that 
of Homer, when the use of writing was very confined, and 
before the short and long E and O sounds had been denoted 
by separate Jetters," (p. 53.) 

xxyii. If it were possible that we could recover contem- 
porary copies of the Iliad and Odyssey as sung by the 
Rhapsodists, together with the tunes to which they recited 
them, and be able at the same time completely to understand 
the musical notation, I have not the slightest doubt that the 
existence of one law at least would be clearly demonstrated ; 
and that is, that a long musical note was invariably accom- 
panied by a long poetical syllable, and a short musical note 
by a short one ; and I believe that in a great variety of 
instances it is utterly hopeless to endeavour to seek to dis- 
cover why particular syllables are long or short, from consi- 
derations deduced from the nature of language, as the cause 
was altogether extraneous to language, and depended solely 
on the musical accompaniment, which has perished for ever. 
But in every branch of human learning and attainment we 
shall discover that long and sonorous words abound in the 
inverse ratio to clear statements and conclusive reasonings ; 
and in none do we meet with more than in prosody, which, 
like the noise and smoke of pieces of artillery, when they do 
no execution, at least tend to disguise the defeat, and cover 
the retreat of a discomfited army. The accomplished editor 

D D 



402 ON PROSODY. 

of Matthias remarks as justly as forcibly in connection with 
other branches of grammar, in language which it would be 
equally injustice to abridge, and presumption to alter: — " We 
are still obliged to have recourse, in the way of explanation, 
to many gratuitous suppositions and unphilosophical shifts, 
for which grammarians have invented fine names that serve 
as circumlocutions to express our ignorance of the real causes 
and reasons of the peculiarities which we would explain. 
We meet with a dative case where the laws of construction 
require a genitive, and it is considered to be a sufficient 
account of the matter, if we say that it is per schema Colo- 
phonium. A word is used in a way that violates the analogy 
of language ; we satisfy ourselves with remarking a cata- 
chresis. For unaccountable changes in the form of words, 
metaplasmus is the panacea. It is scarcely possible to cal- 
culate the mischief which has been done to knowledge of all 
kinds by the invention of technical terms. In the first 
instance they facilitate the acquisition of a science ; but 
afterwards they have a natural tendency to stop the progress 
of research and improvements, because men are generally 
disposed to acquiesce in an established nomenclature, without 
considering the principles upon which it was originally 
formed. Thus even the necessary terms of grammar, which 
we imbibe almost with our mother's milk, become so familiar 
to our ears, that we are seldom led to investigate, by the 
philosophy of language, their precise signification, or the 
justice of that classification of which they are the generic 
expressions." (Editor's Preface, p. 11.) 

xxviii. I shall close this chapter with a few forcible re- 
marks of Thiersch on the subject of the Greek accents. He 
says, with regard to reading by accent, the greatest obstacle 
to this practice appears, when the acute, by the increase of a 
word, is shifted from its place, and transfers the tone marked 
by it to a short syllable ; so that the pronunciation would 
oppose the rhythm both of the Roman tongue and of poetry. 
Can we believe that the Greeks pronounced Socrates, De- 
mosthenes, Cicero, {%03KpaT7]s, Arj/jLoaOsvr)?, Kucspcov), while 
the Romans certainly said Socrates, Demosthenes, and 



ON PROSODY. 403 

Cicero ? Moreover it seems quite impossible to preserve 
quantity according to this method, as in 

TVkayyBr) ItteI Tpoirjg iepov 7rro\U6pov 'i-rrepasv. Od. i. 2. 

where in the first half of the line, indeed, the rhythm of 
accent coincides with the rhythm of the verse ; but in 
the latter position just as far recedes from it, — giving 
the tone ptoliethron epersen; whereas the verse requires 
ptoliethron epersen. This difficulty brought even Valck- 
naer, who was frequently partial in his views and opinions 
on elementary subjects, to the judgment that, although 
accents must be retained on account of their usefulness in 
discriminating the meanings of words, not a single verse 
of a poet, nor a single sentence of an orator, could be 
read according to them. (p. 87.) In conclusion, I would 
observe that as we know what syllables were long, and 
short in every species of Greek and Roman verse, from the 
laws of the different metres, which are in fact the musical 
time or quantity, while the marks (" w ) by which that time is at 
present denoted were in all probability originally so many 
musical notes, it would be wise to write them long and short 
as the Greeks and Romans did, which might be easily done, 
without altering one jot or tittle in our present mode of 
printing, by merely adding a dot, of the nature of the He- 
brew Dagesh, under every syllable that is actually long in 
the position in which we find it ; and if it were done in red 
ink the eye would immediately be able to find that which 
it is in search of; and every page of every Greek book 
printed in this way would be converted into a perpetual 
Thesaurus. As we know what syllables were long, why 
not write them long ? and as we do not, and in many in- 
stances cannot possibly know why they were long, why 
should we persist in devoting to this branch of grammar 
more attention than to all the rest put together? If the 
time now devoted to the study of the quantity of syllables 
were transferred to the investigation of the accurate meaning 
of words, I believe that, while little would be lost to the 
cause of taste, much would be gained to that of solid and 
valuable knowledge. 

D D 2 



404 



CHAP. XXXV. 

ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. THE ^OLIC DIGAMMA. 

" There shalt thou hear and learn the secret power 
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit 
By voice or hand: and various-measured verse, 
iEolian charms, and Dorian lyrick odes, 
And his who gave them birth, but higher sung, 
Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called, 
Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own." 

Paradise Regained, book iv, 

I. One of the most perplexing questions, in the whole range 
of philology, is the origin, nature, use, and application of 
what is called the iEolic Digamma. The dispute commences 
in limine ; for some deny altogether that it was peculiar to the 
.ZEolians ; and the term Digamma, while it describes only- 
one of its forms, and it has as many as Proteus, certainly 
conveys a very false impression of its power, or sound ; 
which, whatever else it may have been, had unquestionably 
nothing analogous to that of G, in any known language. 
Marsh, in his Horae Pelasgicse, observes, "the character 
which distinguishes the .ZEolic dialect might properly be 
called the Pelasgic Digamma. The whole of Greece, as we 
have already seen, was once called Pelasgia: and that the 
use of the Digamma was not, in ancient times, confined to a 
particular race of Greeks, appears from the manner in which 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes it. He speaks in 
general terms of the Digamma, as of the custom of the 
ancient Greeks, whence we may consider the Digamma as 
the pristine character of the Greek language. And again, the 
difference, therefore, which afterwards subsisted between the 
^ZEolic and the other dialects, was not occasioned by an in- 
sertion on the part of the ^Eolians, but an omission on the 
part of the other Greeks," (p. 50.) 

ii. If this dispute is ever to be brought to a satisfactory 



ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. — THE ^EOLIC DIGAMMA. 405 

termination, it can only be accomplished in one mode, by 
bearing constantly in mind that the alphabets of the Greeks 
and Romans were not invented by themselves, but borrowed 
from the Eastern nations ; and that, therefore, unless we re- 
vert to the languages of Asia as the fountain-head, include a 
greater variety of materials within the circuit of our inquiry, 
deduce our conclusions from a wider survey of facts, and at 
the same time argue the various divisions of the subject more 
closely, there is no chance of dispelling those clouds of ob- 
scurity in which the question has always been involved, and 
with which it is still beset. 

in. Fortunately for us, so far as the present inquiry is con- 
cerned, one of the very oldest languages of Asia may also be 
said to be that with which we are the most intimately ac- 
quainted ; I mean the Sanskrit, the close resemblance of 
which, both to the Greek and Latin, is too obvious to be 
overlooked, and too strong to be denied. I begin by re- 
marking, that, in the progress of all languages from rudeness 
to refinement, there is a tendency to drop such sounds as 
the organs of speech experience a difficulty in pronouncing, 
or which offend the ear when pronounced, and that these 
sounds chiefly consist of aspirates and gutturals. This may 
be regarded as the general law ; but it is not a little curious 
to observe the variations in the application of it in some 
examples supplied by the Sanskrit language. The letter H, 
in that language, appears to have the same power as in the 
Latin and the English. 

Greek. 

In Sanskrit we find the word Hili, the sun, whence the 
Greeks borrowed Ele and Elios, writing them in both 
instances with the spiritus asper, which is merely a con- 
traction for their own obsolete letter H, which was sometimes 
the Phoenician Heth, and sometimes the Hebrew Hay, as I 
shall show presently. In Sanskrit we also find the word 
Hyas, yesterday, which the Greeks adopted, writing, it how- 
ever, with the stronger aspirate Ch, Chthes. 

D D 3 



406 on initial aspirates. 

Latin. 

In the words which the Romans borrowed from the 
Sanskrit they appear to have uniformly rejected or dis- 
continued the aspirate H, as is proved by the following list. 

Sanskrit. Latin. 

Hansa, a goose, a gander, a swan ... Anas. 

Haya, a horse Equa, a mare. 

Hayanah, a year Annus. 

Hita, gone Itum. 

Hitan, by reason or cause of Ita, therefore. 

Hvada, to go, to move Vado. 

For ourselves we appear in two instances to have rejected 
the Sanskrit H, and in two others to have converted it into G. 

Sanskrit. English. 

Hrisha, to go Eush. 

Hvi, to emulate Vie. 

Hlada, joy Glad. 

Hladin, happy Gladden; i. e. to make happy. 

In the word enough, which we borrowed from the Egyptian Henoufi, 
abundance, we also rejected the Aspirate. 

iv. After these preliminary observations we are better 
prepared to attend to all the authentic information we can 
obtain respecting the Digamma. I shall no longer denomi- 
nate it .iEolic, as it does not appear to have been peculiar to 
the ^Eolians, and the use of no word is a matter of perfect 
indifference, for whatever does not inform is not merely 
useless but tends to mislead. The following passage, from 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, is that to which most importance 
is attached, which I give from the translation of Spehnan, 
the accuracy and correctness of which are universally ad- 
mitted. " To this purpose they (the aborigines) entered into 
an alliance with the Pelasgi, and granted to them such of 
their lands as lay near the holy lake, of which the greatest 
part were marshy, and which, according to the ancient style 
of their language, are now called Felia : for it was the custom 
of the ancient Greeks generally to place before those words 
that began with a vowel the syllable Ou, written with one 
letter : this was like a Gamma, formed by two oblique lines 
joined to one upright hue, as Felene, Fanax, Foicus, and 
Faner, and many such words." (Spelman, vol. i. page 46.) 



THE ^EOLIC DIGAMMA. 407 

v. Such is the account of the Digamma, ascribed to 
Dionysius of Halicarnassus. I say ascribed, for I am 
strongly disposed to regard the whole as the interpolation of 
some later and very inferior grammarian, which first made its 
appearance as a marginal note, and finally obtruded itself into 
the text. My reasons for thinking so are, in the first place, 
the singularly abrupt and inappropriate manner in which a 
piece of philological information is thrust into the middle of 
an historical narrative, and, secondly, the gross and palpable 
inaccuracy of the information itself. The passage says IT 

WAS THE CUSTOM OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS GENERALLY 
TO PLACE BEFORE THOSE WORDS THAT BEGAN WITH A 
VOWEL THE SYLLABLE OlJ WRITTEN WITH ONE LETTER. 

If this were true, we should have found hardly any words in 
the Greek language beginning with a vowel, but all, on the 
contrary, with the anomalous letter or character described ; 
but this is so far from being the case, that the whole list of 
digammated words given in Valpy's Grammar, disputed and 
undisputed (for nothing connected with the subject is very 
clear), does not amount to more than one hundred and twenty. 
As at the period Dionysius wrote the Roman alphabet was 
completely settled, while that of ancient Greece had never, 
nor has it since, been clearly defined, was he not much more 
likely to have said F, the sixth letter of the Roman alphabet ; 
and more especially as he wrote at Rome, and chiefly with a 
view to the Romans, as is proved conclusively by the subject 
matter of his history, the Roman antiquities. 

vi. Being of opinion that this account of Dionysius requires 
confirmation, I am induced to look in other quarters for it, 
and discover, in Marsh's Horse Pelasgicas, the following 
quotation from Priscian, a distinguished grammarian of the 
sixth century. Speaking of the Latin V, he says, " Unde a 
plerisque ei nomen hoc datur, quod apud >ZEoles habuit olim 
F Digamma, id est Vau, ab ipsius voce profectum, teste 
Varrone et Didymo, qui id ei nomen esse ostendunt," (page 
104.) In the fragments of Yarro the following short notice 
of the subject occurs. " Hanc literam (Digamma) Terentius 
Yarro dum vult demonstrare ita prsescribit Yav. Cassio- 

D D 4 



408 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

dorus de Orthographia." (Yarro de Lingua Latina, Bipont. 
1788.) 

vn. The next question that presents itself is, do these de- 
scriptions of the Digamma by Dionysius and Priscian, enable 
us to fix on any letter in the alphabets of Asia, so as to be 
able to say confidently, here we have, without the possibility 
of being mistaken, the origin or prototype of the Roman F. 
We have two circumstances to guide us, the name and the 
form of the character. The syllable Ou was written in one 
character, or, in other words, Ou was the name of a letter in 
some Oriental alphabet, which, when we have discovered, we 
may dismiss the syllable Ou as of no further use, as it merely 
describes the name of the letter and not its power or sound. 
Greek and Roman tradition was fond of tracing the intro- 
duction of letters into Europe to Cadmus the Phoenician ; and 
this circumstance may reasonably induce us, in the first in- 
stance, to give a preference to the Phoenician or Samaritan 
alphabet ; but we cannot stop short with that, but must re- 
collect that it was a Shemitic language, and that there are 
many other languages of the same family with which we are 
well acquainted, the Arabic, the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the 
Syriac, and the Ethiopic. 

vni. On turning to the Samaritan alphabet in Masclef's 
Grammar, I am not long in discovering the letter I am in 
search of ; as I find that the name of the sixth letter is Ouau. 
The form, however, is by no means so conclusive as the name ; 
and it is not until I have examined many modes of writing it 
that I am quite satisfied it is the letter described by Dio- 
nysius of Halicarnassus. 

"K Form in Masclef's Samaritan Grammar. 
*Form in Spelman's Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on the 
authority of Montfaucon's Palasographia Grgeca, from 
the character in which however it differs a good deal. 
*Form in Marsh's Horse Pelasgicae, page 106., which is 
the nearest approximation to the Roman F. 
We must not forget, however, that Priscian, on the authority 

* I cannot give these forms of Digamma, as they do not exist in type. 



THE ^OLIC DIGAMMA. 409 

of Varro, had called the name of Digamma, not On, nor 
Ouau, but Yav ; and, on opening Erpenius's Arabic Gram- 
mar, I find a letter by him written Waw, and by others Wau 
and Vau, and in Masclef's Hebrew Grammar Ouau, by others 
written Wav ; and in his Syriac Grammar Ouau, by others 
written Van. I am quite sure of the identity of these letters 
with the Samaritan Ouau, as they not only occupy the sixth 
place in their respective alphabets, but the numerical value of 
all is six. The result of this examination is, that the Roman 
F and V were primarily perfectly identical, or at any rate 
only differed, so far as the former was the sixth letter of the 
Samaritan, and the latter the sixth letter of some other 
Shemitic alphabet. 

ix. There is another Shemitic language, however, too im- 
portant to be altogether overlooked in this inquiry, which is 
the Ethiopic, and which, so far as regards the language itself, 
appears to me to be little more than a dialect of the Hebrew, 
but of which the characters or letters may be regarded as 
possessing a great and indefinite antiquity, as Sir William 
Jones fancies he has traced them in some of the cavern 
inscriptions of Hindustan. In that alphabet I find a letter 
Wawe, which, there can be no doubt, is identical with the 
Phoenician or Samaritan Ouau ; and also a letter of the 
name of Af, which induces us to suspect that, if not the 
original, it must at any rate have much in common with the 
Roman F. 

(g Af. If we abstract the bow at the back of the letter 
we shall have the Roman F. If we add it on 
the other side, the Greek Phi. 

^ j- Wawe. Two forms. 

It is not a little remarkable, that the first is the Etruscan, 
or old Italian, and the second the common Greek form of the 
double letter Phi, leading irresistibly to the conclusion, that 
the Roman F and Y, and the Greek Phi, were primarily 
perfectly identical, being derived from, and merely different 
forms of, the sixth letter of various Shemitic alphabets. 



410 ON INITIAL ASPIEATES. 

x. There appears to be still another letter identical with 
the three above, F, V, and Phi ; and that is the letter Beta. 
Its name, in the Egyptian alphabet, is Yida ; its power, in the 
Hebrew, that of both B and Y. In the Ethiopic alphabet, 
the form of Bet is Q 3 and in the Estrangolo, or Old Syriac, I 
find A as a form of Yau, and feel disposed to believe that 
they passed into the Greek alphabet as different forms of 
Upsilon, and into the Roman as forms of u and v. Plutarch 
frequently uses B to express the Latin Y, and we are in- 
formed by Yarro that the Ionians wrote Ber instead of Yer, 
spring. (Marsh, p. 117 — 119.) 

xi. The various forms of this sixth letter of the Shemitic 
languages have been productive of much obscurity and con- 
fusion in everything connected with the subject of the Di- 
gamma ; and the perplexity has been not a little augmented by 
the indefinite nature of the letter itself, which is not merely 
both a vowel and consonant, but, according to circumstances, 
different vowels and different consonants. Of Ouau, Mas- 
clef remarks, that it is always a vowel ; but all the gramma- 
rians who adhere to the vowel points give it also the power 
of Y and W in all the Shemitic languages, — in Arabic, in 
Hebrew, in Chaldee, in Syriac, and in Samaritan. Ac- 
cording to the generally received system, 

1 Wav, in Hebrew, without any point, is a consonant, Y 
or W. 

■j with Cholom above the letter, it is O. 

^ with Shooraik by the side of the letter it is 00, or U. 

All these characters of doubt and ambiguity accompanied 
this letter in every stage of its progress in the Greek and 
Latin Alphabets, as may be rendered obvious by a few 
examples. 

xii. The Greeks did not borrow their Omicron either 
from the Phoenician, or the Hebrew alphabet, but from the 
sixth letter of the Syriac, Yau o 5 and until the introduction 
of Upsilon, which was probably borrowed from another form 
of the Estrangolo or Old Syriac, Yau A, reversed v> it 
answered the purpose both of O and U. Marsh remarks, 



THE ^OLIC DIGAMMA. 411 

that Upsilon was introduced at a comparatively late period 
of the Greek alphabet (page 105.) ; and certain it is that in 
one existing Greek inscription, the Amyclean, which has 
many strong claims to be regarded as much older than any 
other, not only the long vowels are not written, but the same 
character supplies the place both of O micron and Upsilon, 
(Lanzi, tomo i. page 100.). According to Plutarch, the 
Egyptian priests pronounced the name of Osiris, Usiris ; and 
Ovid informs us, that the name of Orion was sometimes 
written Urion, but that the former was the more ancient 
sound of the letter (Vau .?). 

" Hunc Hyrieus, quia sic genitus vocat Uriona, 

Perdidit antiquum littera prima sonum." Fast. lib. v. 

As we cannot do with Digamma it would be well if we 
could do without it; and we might do without it, if we 
could in every instance account as clearly for the conversion 
of Greek into Roman words as in the following cases : — 
Syriac Vau o, primarily in the Greek language both Omi 

cron and Upsilon, and possessing the powers of O and U, 

V and W. 

Oinos, Ace. Oinon, wine. 

Yinum (Latin), by reading the initial O as V, and the final as U. 

Wine (English), by reading the initial O as W. 

Oikos (Greek), a house. 

Vicus (Latin), a street, by reading the initial O as V, and the final as U. 

The reader will observe, that in these instances there is 
no necessity for supposing that any letter, line, or dot has 
either been added or omitted. I only suppose that the 
Greek Omicron was derived from the Syriac Vau, that its 
powers in the language into which it was adopted were the 
same as in that from which it was borrowed, neither more 
nor less, and that the Greeks used it in its vowel, and the 
Romans in its consonant, character. 

xni. If we now select a few words in the middle of which 
Omicron or Omega in Greek (which is merely two Omicrons) 
becomes V in Latin, the change is equally obvious, and easily 
accounted for. 



412 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

Greek. Roman Letters. Latin. 

Aioju Aion JEvum. 

"Aco Ao Aveo. 

Bioo Bioo Vivo. 

B6eg , Boes Boves. 

Aibg Dios Divus. 

Div, Persic. 

Deva, Sanskrit. 

Koto) Kao Cavo. 

Aawg Laios Laevus. 

AsTog Leios Levis. 

Mdopog Maoros Mavors. 

'Qov Oon Ovum. 

Aion is written with Omega. ; Omega is merely two Omicrons, and 
Omicron was the Syriac Vau ; by reading the first O as V, I have 
iEvum, Latin ; the same in Ao, Aveo. In Bioo the initial letter in Hebrew 
is B or Y; and the Omicron in Syriac is V; hence Vivo, Latin. In 
Laios, Leios, and Maoros, we have only to suppose a slight transposition 
in forming the Latin word from the Greek, and to recollect the conso- 
nant character of the Syriac Vau, the prototype of the Greek Omicron. 

xiv. Again, the Digamnia has been supposed to account 
most easily and naturally for the formation of such words as 
the Latin Ver, spring, from the Greek Er, or Ear. The 
latter appears to be the Hebrew Aor, the sun, used, by a 
slight metonymy, for the season in which the sun begins to 
exert his power ; and by reading the second letter of Aor as 
the consonant V, with a transposition, we have the Latin 
Yar or Ver ; the Romans (as in the instances before noticed 
of Yinum from Oinos, and Yicus from Oikos,) reading the 
Oriental letter Yau or Wav as a consonant, while the 
Greeks read it as a vowel. It is not necessary, however, to 
have recourse either to the Hebrew Aor, or the Greek Ear ; 
for the Latin Yer, as a much more obvious etymology, pre- 
sents itself in the Persic* Bahar, by contraction Yer, which 
the Ionians or Asiatic Greeks wrote Ber, approximating still 
more nearly to the Persic. Again, the Greek word Aion 
appears to have been derived by transposition from the 
Arabic Anu, or Ano, time ; and the Latin, in the same way, 
reading the Wav as a consonant Avn, iEvum. 

* In Anquetil du Perron's List of Pehlvi, or Ancient Persic words, it is 
written Vahar, torn. iii. p. 457. 



THE MOLIC DIGAMMA. 413 

xv. In reading Lanzi's Saggio di Lingua Etrusca, and, 
indeed, the whole body of ancient Greek inscriptions, various 
characters occur of so equivocal a nature as to render it a 
matter of considerable difficulty to assign them their true 
power or sound. For instance, at page 106 of the first 
volume, I read, in Greek letters, 

A&uov, FAEto>N, CASIHN, OAEIX1N, 

with a remark, that the characters F and C placed before A, 
appear to denote the spiritus lenis written in a different 
mode. 

And again, at page 141. of the same volume, Lanzi says, 
Gori remarks, that in the Latin tables of Gubbio the word 
Erunt is written in three ways — ERIHONT, ERAFONT, 
and ERIRONT. I only notice the very different ortho- 
graphy at present, for the purpose of remarking, that I 
believe the characters F, C, and H to be essentially the same 
letter, and that, therefore, the preceding words do not differ 
so much as at first sight they appear to do. 

Hebrew Hay, n, and Roman F (Digamma). 
xvi. I have no hesitation in expressing my entire con- 
viction, that the character which has been denominated 
Digamma by Bentley and his followers, is, in a great majority 
of instances, merely the Hebrew letter Hay (H) malformed, 
or, in other words, placed in a perpendicular instead of a 
horizontal position. The Greeks denominated a columnar 
inscription Kionedon, and one such I find in Lanzi, tomo ii. 
page 546., which he reads Mercurfei ; but which, I believe, 
ought to be read Mercurhei, and from which any one, who 
knows the Hebrew letters, will perceive at a glance that, by 
placing Hay n, in a perpendicular position, we have at 
once the far-famed Digamma F, or Roman F. In the words 
in the preceding page, the character in Faxion and Erafont 
is the Hebrew Hay (H), and simply an aspirate, the C, Hay 
or Heth, in a perpendicular instead of a horizontal position, 
and the H, in Erihont, a Phoenician Heth (H). The 
Roman*, in the following words, appear to have changed 



414 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

Hay into Digamma, or F ; while the Spaniards have retained 
the true reading of the Oriental letter. 

F n 

Roman Words. Spanish Words. 

Farina Harina. 

Faba Hava. 

Fibra Hebra. 

Formica Hormiga. 

Marsh's Horce Pelasgicce, p. 51. 

Hebrew Bayth n b, or v. 

TX , , l in a natural position. 

■ Heth n ch J r 

■ 2 m a perpendicular one. 

xvn. There are two or three other Hebrew letters, which 
I find in Lanzi's Essay, obviously very liable to be mistaken 
for each other, and which I believe have actually been mis- 
read by him and others. In vol. iii. p. 602, is the inscription 
VN3TID written from right to left, with a head of Italy; 
and regarding the initial letter as one of the forms of Di- 
gamma he reads Yitelia. The letter may be a Hebrew 
Bayth ; in which case his is the true reading ; but it is more 
probably Hay or Heth in a perpendicular position, and merely 
a sign of aspiration, which will make the true reading 
Hitelia. In another part of his work he quotes a remark of 
Apollodorus, to prove that Italus, in the language of Etruria, 
signified a bull ; but there can be little doubt that it was 
preceded by one of the dubious characters which signified 
H, V, or F ; and was either Hitalus or the common Latin 
word Yitulus, a calf. 

d({ Sanskrit, Hv. 

^ Sanskrit H in Wilkins. 

TT Digamma, Tacitus cura Brotier, v. torn. Londini 3 1812, 
(Valpy). 

xvin. I find, in Lanzi's Work on Etruria, two forms of S, 
which I believe to have been borrowed from the Sanskrit ; 
one of them so peculiar that I do not think it could have 
come from any other quarter, and which was certainly read 
by the ancient Greeks and Italians in some instances as R, 



THE iEOLIC DIGAMMA. 415 

which it very much resembles. This circumstance renders 
it probable that other Sanskrit letters may have been current 
in Italy at a very early period, and among them one of the 
above characters. We have seen that the Hebrew Hay n, 
placed in a perpendicular position F, is naturally read as Di- 
gamma or Roman F ; that the same Hebrew letter Hay, a 
little altered in its form, and placed in a reversed position 
3, is equally liable to be confounded with the Hebrew letter 
Bayth ^, which had also the power of V, F, or Digamma. 
And again, we find another source of possible and probable 
error between the Samaritan or Phoenician Ouau, or Yau 
the prototype of the Roman F and the Sanskrit H. All 
these numerous sources of mistake must have been largely 
assisted by the primitive Greek mode of writing, which they 
denominated Boustrophedon, from its resemblance to an ox 
ploughing, or alternately from right to left, and left to right. 
The most ancient mode of writing in Italy appears to have 
resembled the Oriental, and to have been from right to left, 
as is proved conclusively by the work of Lanzi. But 
putting out of the question the mistakes likely to have been 
produced, from the circumstance of two characters closely 
resembling each other, the single compound Sanskrit charac- 
ter Hv, if it could be proved to have had a general circula- 
tion in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, would of itself almost 
settle the dispute ; for as it might have been read either as H, 
V, or F, we have only to suppose that the first reading was 
uniformly preferred by the Dorians, lonians, and Attics, and 
the latter by the .ZEolians, in which they were followed by 
the Romans, and we shall have very nearly accounted for the 
actual state of things. 

xix. But as there can be little doubt that both H and F 
were used as aspirates by the ancient Greeks and Italians, it 
is by no means an uninteresting subject of inquiry to en- 
deavour to ascertain, if we can, which was the more ancient 
of the two. All I believe are agreed in regarding Estia, the 
Greek name of Vesta, as a word which takes the Digamma. 
That word occurs in Herodotus, and in his Ionic Dialect is 
written Istie with the spiritus asper, and would no doubt 



416 ON INTTIAL ASPIRATES. 

have been written Histie, if the H had not disappeared from 
the Greek alphabet. Had that word to the ears of Herodotus 
had any sound approximating to that which the school of 
Bentley ascribe to Digamma, he could not have experienced 
any difficulty in rendering it ; for though it should be objected 
that the Greek alphabet never contained the letter F, and 
that Upsilon had lost its consonant character, and could not 
be used as V, still he had the command of the letter Phi, and 
could have written Phistie, This brings me to the etymology 
of Yesta. In Coptic we find Phas, urere, of which I believe 
the primitive meaning was Ignis, while Eustathius informs us 
that Tos was the oldest form of the Greek article. Hence 
with — 

Pie, prefix. 

Phas, fire. 

Tos, ancient form of the Article, we have Hephaistos, 
Yulcan, or the God of Fire, the type or personification of 
the sun. Dropping the prefix, the feminine of Phastos is 
Phastia ; and hence Vesta, Latin. 

"Nee tu aliud Vestam quam vivam intellige Jlammam" 
says Ovid, in the sixth book of his Fasti. Here I must request 
my reader particularly to remark that Yesta is merely the 
Roman form of the Egyptian word, and that the Y, or Di- 
gamma, so far from being a letter used or laid aside at plea- 
sure, is an essential component part of the root Phas. We 
want no Digamma to account for the formation of the word 
Yesta, which would probably have been precisely as we find 
it, though no such language as the Greek had ever existed. 
There can be little doubt that the Egyptian word is the root 
both in Greek and Latin ; but in adopting it the Greeks dis- 
liked the initial aspirate Phi, and wrote Estia, while the 
Romans retained it, and wrote Yesta. 

xx. Again, in Ovid's Fasti we meet with the following very 
remarkable distich : — 

" Venerat Atrides fatis agitatus Halesus, 

A quo se dictam terra Falisca putat." Lib. iv. p. 73. 

We have seen, in the preceding paragraphs, that there are 
several Oriental letters with the power of H, extremely 



THE ^EOLIC DIGAMMA. 417 

liable to be confounded with the Roman F, or Digamma, 
the Hebrew Hay and Heth, the Sanskrit Ha, and compound 
character Hv. When the Romans finally settled their al- 
phabet, and adopted the Phoenician Heth as their letter H, 
the other characters for H would naturally be disused, as 
unnecessary, and as peculiarly liable to be confounded with 
the Roman F ; but there can be little doubt that, while the 
Roman alphabet was in progress, the characters for H, V, 
and F, were frequently confounded, which will account for 
the above etymology in Ovid of Falisca from Halesus. 

xxi. Aristotle calls Italus king of the GEnotrians ; and as 
the etymology of the latter word is Eneh, time, and Ter, all, 
both Egyptian, in the sense of Aborigines, there can be little 
doubt that that of Italus is Hit (Arabic) time, and Ail 
(Hebrew) God, merely another name of Chronos, or Saturn, 
by whom Italy is said to have been peopled, or civilised, and 
by whom it would appear to have been also named ; and we 
have CEnotria from the Egyptian, and Hitalia, or Italia, from 
the Arabic name of Saturn. In vol. i. p. 327. of his work, 
Lanzi is disposed to read Vitelia ; but I believe the initial 
letter to be a Hay or Heth in a perpendicular position, and 
that the true reading is Hitelia. 

xxii. As this question of the greater antiquity of H or F 
as an aspirate, is a highly curious one, my readers must 
pardon me for treating of it with some degree of detail. 
" Oppidum Helia quae nunc Velia," says Pliny, lib. iii. cap. 5. 
(Lanzi, ii. 291.) 

I shall next quote a passage from Servius, which forms a 
comment on the extract from Ovid's Fasti, in paragraph 20. : — 

" Faliscos Halaesus condidit. Hi autem immutata H in 
F, Falisci dicti sunt sicut fibris dicitur quae ante Hebris 
dicebatur, Formiae quae Hormiae airo tt)s opixrjs. Nam pos- 
teritas in multis nominibus F pro H posuit." (Lanzi, torn. ii. 
p. 65.) 

On the other hand, Lanzi, on the authority of Priscian, 
adduces a passage to the following effect : — " Ubi antiqui F 
litteram posuerunt, nos H substituimus ; ut quod illi Fordeum 

E E 



418 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

dicebant, nos Hordeum, Fariolum quern nos Hariolum, Fedum 
quern nos Haedum." (tomo i. p. 129.) 

xxiii. These accounts are diametrically opposite, and ap- 
parently utterly irreconcilable, and the only question seems 
to be which we will adopt, and which we will reject. At 
the first view the authorities in favour of H against F 
appear to preponderate so greatly as to leave hardly any 
room for hesitation, as we have Herodotus, Ovid, Pliny, and 
Servius, a grammarian of the fourth century of the Christian 
era, against Priscian, a grammarian of the sixth ; except that 
the passage from the latter seems to be founded on, and little 
more than a repetition of, the well known one in the first 
book of the Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; 
if, indeed, we could suppose that that passage was altogether 
an interpolation, or that it had been corrupted by the care- 
lessness of some transcriber, or perverted by the ignorance 
of some later grammarian, and that Dionysius wrote not 
On, the name of the sixth letter of the Phoenician alphabet, 
but He, the name of the fifth, which has the power of H, and 
very nearly the form of F ; — if we could not reconcile all 
these contradictions we should at least perceive in what 
manner many of them had arisen. 

3 form of He (H) in Masclef s Samaritan Grammar. 
If written from left to right, its form would of course 
be precisely the reverse. 
* H form of He in Dutens's Phoenician medals. 

H form of Digarnma, or Initial Aspirate, in the Sigean 
Inscriptions, in the words Haisopus and Hadelphoi. 

It is obvious that the Phoenician He, in some of its forms, 
may easily have been mistaken for a Roman F, and if 
Dionysius wrote He, and not Ou, as the name of the letter, 
as a matter of course he also wrote Helene, Hanax, Hoicus, 
and Haner as exemplifications of its power. This change 
would render the whole passage much more consonant with 
the actual state of the Greek language, as it is known to us. It 
is not true, so far as it appears to us, that the Ancient 

* Doubtful, and much more probably a form of Heth. 



THE iEOLIC DIGAMMA. 419 

Greeks ever prefixed the anomalous character, distinguished 
by the name of Digamma, generally to every word beginning 
with a vowel, as is asserted by Dionysius ; as all the industry 
of modern philologists has not been able to discover more 
than about one hundred and twenty digammated words ; but 
it is true that an aspirated letter has disappeared from the 
Greek alphabet, leaving no traces of itself except in the two 
breathings. It is probable that that letter was H ; and it is 
quite certain that many words written in Greek with those 
breathings are written in Egyptian with the letter Hori, 
which has the power of our English H. 

xxiv. Marsh, in his Horae Pelasgicse, speaking of the Elean 
Inscription says, no proof can be necessary of the existence 
of the Digamma in this inscription, as it occurs not less than 
seven times in ten lines. This inscription, therefore, is of 
very great importance in the history of the -ZEolic Digamma. 
It was not only found in a country where we know that the 
Digamma was constantly used, but it further exemplifies the 
application of the Digamma to words of which we had no 
evidence before. We know that in various instances, where 
the other Greeks used the aspirate H, the JEolians used F. 
But the .ZEolians did not always use F where the other 
Greeks used H. That the Pelasgi who brought letters 
into Latium, used both H and F appears from the Latin 
alphabet, which contains both of these letters, (p. 68.) I 
merely notice this passage to remark that I believe the 
learned writer has been making a distinction without a 
difference, and describing essentially the same letter, H 
being Heth, the eighth letter of the Phoenician, and F being 
Heth, the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet in a perpen- 
dicular instead of a horizontal position and to be read as H, 
in every part of the Elean Inscription. Many early Greek 
Columnar Inscriptions were read from top to bottom. The 
Hebrew letter, in its natural position, could only be read as 
n Heth; but suppose the column fallen, or placed in a 
horizontal position, and the same character becomes Digamma 
F, and Roman F. 

E E 2 



420 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

xxv. After all that has been written on Digamma, and 
however curious that character may be, as the subject of 
antiquarian inquiry, it is of little practical importance to the 
philologist, except in the degree to which it enables him to 
account for the anomalies of Homer's versification ; and how 
far does it do so ? So far is this character from removing all 
difficulties, and clearing up all obscurities, that it is perhaps 
not too much to assert, that it has hitherto acted the part of 
Chaos in Milton, " and by decision more embroils the fray ; " 
for philologists are not agreed among themselves whether it 
is a vowel, or a consonant, or both, or a simple aspirate; 
while Homer, for whose sole benefit it was contrived, in 
many instances, with a singular degree of perversity refuses 
to avail himself of it. (Marsh, p. 97. note.) 

xxvi. Marsh says the Greek F was a constituent part of the 
primitive Greek alphabet. [Regarding this character as the 
Hebrew Hay in a perpendicular position, I have no objection 
to admit it ; as that letter had precisely the same power and 
very nearly the same form as the Phoenician Heth H, which, 
in the final settlement of the Greek alphabet, subsided into 
capital Eta, — a contracted mode of writing two Epsilons ; but 
the learned author appears to regard the character F as equi- 
valent to the Roman F ; and in this sense the opinion 
expressed appears to be almost peculiar to himself: he pro- 
ceeds to say,] It corresponded as well in form as in alpha- 
betic order to the sixth letter of the Phoenician or Samaritan 
alphabet. The sixth letter of the Samaritan alphabet, as it 
still appears in the Samaritan manuscripts of the Pentateuch, 
is a double Gamal, as the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet 
was a double Gamma. The difference, therefore, which 
afterwards subsisted between the .zEolic and the other 
dialects, was not occasioned by an insertion on the part of 
the ^Eolians, but an omission on the part of the other Greeks, 
(page 50.) 

xxvu. On the other hand, Dunbar, in his " Dissertation on 
the Versification of Homer," says, those marks which are found 
on ancient inscriptions, and have been supposed to indicate 



THE ^EOLIC DIGAMMA. 421 

the iEolic Digamrua, or, according to Dawes, the Ionic Vau 
are the indications of that rough breathing which was at first 
perhaps wholly guttural, but afterwards softened to the 
breathing of the letter H (Phoenician Heth and Roman H), 
and lastly to the spiritus asper, which succeeded it. Even 
the changes which the form of that character underwent are 
sufficient proofs of its nature and use. The aspirate was ab- 
breviated into the form of F, the half of the H (H), for the 
sake of dispatch ; it afterwards assumed a crescent shape, €, 
and lastly was diminished to the small figure of the spiritus 
asper, e . But even though the Digamma or Ionic Vau had 
been used by the Greeks, still I assert that it must have dis- 
appeared before the time of Homer; because it is evident, 
as has been already stated, that his language has every mark 
of high cultivation, and of a systematic endeavour to exclude 
a multiplicity of consonants. As many vowels appear to have 
been brought together as was consistent with the harmony of 
sound; and in several instances, particularly in some com- 
pound words, they were embodied so close, by the elision of 
consonants, as to render it difficult, if not impossible, to dis- 
cover the component parts. From this studied harmony, the 
result of many changes and improvements in the structure of 
the language, arose that sweet and flowing tone of the Ionian 
dialect, so conspicuous in Homer and Herodotus. It is 
altogether at variance with its character to suppose the Di- 
gamma was ever used but as a vowel sound. To introduce 
it as a consonant either with the power of F or V, would be, 
in my opinion, to barbarise the language, and, instead of re- 
presenting it in the state which Homer used it, to bring it 
back to those rude and harsh sounds which probably charac- 
terised it when first introduced into Greece, by the wandering 
Pelasgi, from their Scythian deserts, (page 12.) 

xxvin. After all our pains to ascertain the origin and power 
of Digamma, the uncertainty attending its use is not a little 
remarkable. Marsh says, at what period the Greek F began 
to be omitted, or exchanged for H, by the Dorians, Ionians, 
and Athenians, is a question which we have no data to de- 
ls E 3 



422 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

terming and, regarding both characters as the same letter H, 
(the former being Hebrew, and the latter Phoenician or 
Samaritan,) I cannot but be of opinion that the decision is of 
very little consequence. He proceeds to say: that it had 
fallen into disuse among the Ionians when Herodotus wrote, 
can admit of no doubt ; but had it fallen into disuse among 
them when Homer composed his Iliad and Odyssey ? Pro- 
bably not. (page 50.) And again, if it be objected that the 
iEolians could not have used FVIOZ, where the other 
Greeks used HVIOZ (now written viof), because the versi- 
fication of Homer would not allow of that form, I answer that 
the versification of Homer will no more allow the use of 
Faner and Fandros, for Aner and Andros, than of Fuios for 
Uios. Yet Dionysius of Halicarnassus positively asserts that 
the most ancient Greeks did write Faner for Aner, as well as 
Fanax for Anax. (page 97.) 

xxix. We are once more arrived at the passage of Dionysius 
of Halicarnassus, from which we started, and in our long ex- 
cursion have been able to collect but few facts respecting 
which there can be no doubt. If any portion of the subject, 
however, connected with the inquiry into the origin and 
power of the Digamma, can be regarded as certain, it is, that 
the oldest aspirate in the Greek language was neither F, nor 
partaking in the remotest degree of the sound of F, but a 
strict and proper H, as may be proved by the concurrent 
testimony of all the highest authorities. These authorities 
are actual inscriptions ; for there is little reliance to be placed 
on the testimony of the whole tribe of grammarians, lexi- 
cographers, and scholiasts, most of whom were very easily 
misled themselves, very indifferent about misleading others, 
and the works of many of whom are in such a state of hope- 
less corruption, that it is no longer possible to determine 
what they wrote. There is, I believe, no complete Greek 
inscription in existence which does not exhibit traces of the 
last state of the Greek alphabet as it was settled in the 
Archonship of Euclid, and as we find it in all the existing 
copies of Homer. The Amyclean alone and part of the 
Sigean do not contain the long or double vowels ; and in both 



THE ^OLIC DIGAMMA. 423 

we find H used as an aspirate. In the former, the characters 
M0 are found near each other in the second or oldest part, 
which Lanzi and Barthelemy are disposed to read as a 
number ; but the Mu has all the appearance of having formed 
the last letter of a word which has been effaced ; while the p 
should certainly be read with the following word. 

fflsva\ia Lanzi, tomo i. page 96. 

That the initial letter is an aspirate, 
and that that aspirate was simply H, 
appears to be confirmed beyond the 
power of doubt, by the mode in 
which we find Hercules written in 
different parts of Lanzi's Etruria. 

H^^VA Erchul, with Eta. Tomo iii. page 

599. 

€DKV£ Erkle, with Epsilon. Tomo ii. page 

206. 

0€DKV€ Herkle, with aspirate Phoenician Heth, 

Tomo ii. page 206. 

* S€D<V € Herkle, with aspirate Phoenician Heth. 

Tomo i. page 199. Precisely in 
the same way as the Henalia of the 
Amyclean inscription. 
In the oldest part of the Sigean in- 
scription we read 

H EP^OKPflTOZ, Hermokratos. The initial letter is the 
first form of the Phoenician He, 
given in Dutens's Medals. 
But as this is a proper name, and the 
Roman way of writing such a name, 
to put the matter out of all doubt, 
in the last word of the same in- 
scription we read 

HflAEV^OI Hadelphoi, brothers, where it is im- 

possible to misapprehend the nature 
of the initial letter. 

* Another form of Heth, and the oldest Greek Eta ; see Kose. 

E e 4 



424 ON INITIAL ASPIKATES. 

From a careful examination of all the materials within my 
reach, and the best attention I can give to the subject, I have 
not the slightest doubt that what is called Digamma, in nine- 
teen cases out of twenty, perhaps in ninety-nine out of a 
hundred, is merely some form of the letter H, in one of the 
alphabets of Asia, which we know the ancient Greeks wrote, 
and the later Greeks expressed in the two breathings de- 
nominated asper and lenis. 

xxx. The Digamma then (understanding by that term a 
character with the power or sound of the Latin and English 
F) will do so little towards rectifying the anomalies of the 
versification of Homer, that it may be doubted if we are at 
all indebted to Dionysius of Halicamassus for giving us any 
information about it, or to Bentley for reviving it after it 
had been nearly consigned to oblivion; and we cannot but 
feel the full force of the following observation of Dunbar, 
" to ascertain the causes why vowels, originally short, and 
supported only by single consonants, are uniformly long, 
would likewise be of great utility." (page 9.) 

xxxi. In the Chapter on the Siege of Troy, in another 
work*, I have endeavoured to show that there are two 
passages in the Odyssey which could not, by any possibility, 
have been written until after the era of Polycrates, tyrant of 
Samos, as they infer the existence of Cydon in Crete, a city 
which Herodotus positively asserts was not built until after 
his time. Unless we suppose interpolations so extensive as 
to destroy altogether the historical character of the work, 
these two passages are conclusive as to the age of the 
Odyssey ; and whatever is decisive as regards that poem is 
very nearly so with respect to the Iliad. I have further 
pointed out coincidences between the two sieges of Troy, by 
Hercules and Agamemnon, and the two sieges of Babylon by 
Cyrus and Darius Hystaspes, so close and numerous as to 
render it almost matter of certainty that the Epic must have 

* Not yet published, " Clavis Chronologica ; or an Account of the 
various Chronological Systems of Mankind, and an Investigation of the 
Principles on which they are founded." 



THE ^OLIC DIGAMMA. 425 

borrowed various circumstances from the History, which 
reduces the completion of the Iliad and Odyssey, in their 
present state, so low as the age of Pisistratus, — by the common 
consent of all antiquity the editor of Homer. Those poems 
were, in substance, written at Athens, and by Athenians ; 
that is, either by Pisistratus himself, or by an association of 
men of poetical talents acting with and influenced by him. 
The prevailing dialect in the Iliad and Odyssey, the Ionic, 
which was really the oldest Attic, the Compliments to Athens 
in the body of the work, particularly that as to the superior 
military skill of Menestheus, and the more strict discipline of 
his troops, and, above all, the universal tradition of the inti- 
mate connection between the present form of the works of 
Homer and the superintending care of Pisistratus*, all point 
irresistibly to this conclusion. 

xxxn. This hypothesis is inimical, not merely to the Di- 
gamma but to any other circumstance peculiarly and em- 
phatically ^Eolic ; and it cannot be denied that it increases, 
in a very considerable degree, the difficulties arising out of a 
consideration of the anomalies of Homer's Versification ; for 
it may reasonably be demanded, if we bring down the com- 
pletion of the Iliad and Odyssey almost to the age of Pindar 
and .ZEschylus, why do we meet with more irregularities of 
metre in Homer than in those distinguished authors? I 
can suggest only one answer, that the basis of the Iliad and 
Odyssey consisted of the works of the Rhapsodists, or 
Itinerant bards, which had been transmitted orally, and 
never committed to writing until they were so by Pisis- 
tratus, or the Greek Yarius's and Tuccas who assisted him 
and acted under his direction ; that the great body of that 
poetry had been sung or recited to the accompaniment of a 
lyre ; that there must, therefore, have been an agreement 

* " Nunc vero nihil opus est conjecturas capere. Historia loquitur. 
Nam vox totius antiquitatis, et si summam spectes consentiens fama tes- 
tatur, Pisistratum Carmina Homeri primum consignasse Uteris, et in eum 
ordinem redigisse quo nunc leguntur. Hoc posterius Cicero, Pausanias, 
et reliqui onines qui mentionem rei faciunt, iisdem prope verbis, et ut 
vulgo notissimum, perhibent." (Wolfii Prolegomena ad Homerum, c. 33.) 



426 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

between the time of the poetry and the music ; that in the 
early ages the Licentia Poetica extended to the lengthening 
or shortening any syllable of whatever vowels composed, to 
make it agree with the musical note with which it was re- 
cited ; and that in this way the anomalies of metre appeared 
to be so great, in a polished and learned age, that to reform 
them altogether would have required large portions of the 
Iliad and Odyssey to be re- written, — a degree of labour from 
which Pisistratus and his assistants shrank ; and that, there- 
fore, there are numerous lines in Homer incapable of being 
reduced to regular Hexameters by any known laws of 
prosody, as there are passages in our own Chaucer, in which 
the nicest ear cannot discover any approximation to harmony, 
or even to any intelligible system of metre. 

xxxiii. A point, however, of much more importance than 
Digamma, in the present advanced state of knowledge, is a 
consideration of the propriety and expediency of returning 
to some intelligible mode of writing Greek and Latin, by 
means of which the quantity of every syllable may be ren- 
dered obvious at a glance, without the necessity of referring 
to a Thesaurus or a Gradus ; I say of returning, as there can 
be no doubt that such a mode of writing existed among the 
Greeks and Romans, and that we have deviated from it. 

1. That this was the case, even if we had no positive 
evidence on the subject, might be inferred from the analogy 
of many of the Asiatic languages, particularly the Sanskrit, 
the most polished and elaborate of them all, in which we find 
two distinct sets of vowels, long and short, and in which^ 
consequently, there is in no instance any more doubt about 
the quantity of a syllable than about the letters of which it 
is composed. We are informed by Sir William Jones that 
the prosody of the Persic and Arabic languages is little more 
difficult, though their system of # writing is not so perfect as 
the Sanskrit. But we want no assurances on the subject, 
as the mere fact that the grammars of those languages do 
not contain even a chapter on prosody is quite sufficient. 
When the Asiatics have acquired their alphabet they have 



THE ^EOLIC digamma. 427 

learnt their prosody at the same time ; while to an European, 
and especially an English classical scholar, the latter forms 
the great business of life. 

2. In the Greek language at least we observe an approxi- 
mation to the Sanskrit ; as of their five vowels two are double, 
short and long, Omicron and Omega, and Epsilon and Eta ; 
and of the remaining three the names of two render it a 
matter of certainty that they were always short, and conse- 
quently, that to express a long syllable they must either have 
been actually written twice, or been accompanied by some 
mark to denote that the letter was doubled in reading, and 
therefore the time or quantity twice as long. 

Alpha, etymology Alpa, Sanskrit, little, single, or short. 

Epsilon, etymology, the Greek epithet Psilon, single, ap- 
pended to the letter. 

As Omicron and Upsilon were primarily precisely the 
same letter, the former being the common Syriac Yau O, and 
the latter the Estrangolo, or old Syriac Yau A, Omega was 
the long vowel of both, leaving Alpha and Iota the only 
doubtful vowels, which, when long, were probably written 
twice. Ovid informs us that Orion, which is written with 
Omega, was pronounced Urion. 

3. Putting probabilities out of the question, we can show 
from existing inscriptions, Greek, Etruscan, and Latin, that 
the short vowels were actually written twice to express a 
long syllable. In the Amyclean, the only remaining inscrip- 
tion which exhibits the Greek alphabet as consisting of six- 
teen letters, we have the following remarkable readings : — 

1. Marssp for MaT??^. 

2. Uarssp for Harrjp. 

3. Msvs/jloovos for Mvsfjuwvos. 

With respect to the Etruscans, Lanzi, after observing that 
a double vowel indicates a long syllable, produces the fol- 
lowing inscriptions, which must be read from right to left : — 

I n A A n Paapi, or Papius, from a Samnite medal ; tomo i. 

p. 245. 
>IV>lflfln Paakul, or Paculus, from an Oscan stone, 
tomo i. p. 245. 



428 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

And, with regard to the Romans, Lanzi says, they doubled 
the vowels to express a long quantity like the Ancient 
Greeks ; and from existing medals we have (tomo i. p. 120.) 

VAALA 

FEELIX for Felix. 

EII for Ei, in Plautus. 

JYVS for Jus, in Mazzochi. 

MAIIA for Maia, in Cicero. 

POMPEIIVS for Pompeius, in Cicero. 

So that in this paragraph we have examples of all the five 
vowels a, e, i, o, and u, written twice to denote a long 
syllable.* 

4. In the first or oldest part of the Sigean Inscription, 
as given by Lanzi, the long and the short vowels do not 
appear to be discriminated ; but this is probably appearance 
only ; for as the Greeks borrowed their letters from the 
Asiatics, it is impossible to say how much of their system 
of writing they borrowed at the same time. In the Hebrew 
we find at present a simple dot denominated Dagesh, which, 
appended either to vowels or consonants, shows that they are 
doubled, and consequently converts short into long syllables ; 
but we have no positive evidence that Dagesh is older than 
the vowel points, and it may have been borrowed from the 
Arabic Teschid, at the same time with them ; but on the 
other hand it may by possibility be as old as the Hebrew 
letters themselves. The Greek language exhibits something 
of the nature of Dagesh ; as in their numerical system a dot 
below Alpha converts it into one thousand, its value without 
the dot being one; and as they resorted to so simple an 
expedient to augment the value of Alpha as a cipher, they 
may also have appended a dot to it as a letter, to show that 
it was doubled in reading ; and as it is quite certain that a 
dot would disappear before a letter, this may account for 

* In the second volume of Conyers Middleton's Miscellaneous Works 
we meet with a tract, entitled " De Latinarum Literarum Pronunciatione 
Dissertatio," which contains the following passage : "Pro A longa duplicein 
persaepe positam videmus, ut Paastores, Faato, qua? omnia non nisi toni 
dilationem quandam significare videntur — Faato Naatam." (p, 446.) 



THE ^EOLTC DIGAMMA. 429 

some apparent anomalies in Greek Inscriptions. In Dutens's 
medals I find Omega written thus O, which is clearly 
Omicron, with a mark to show that it was doubled or long ; 
and this form is as clearly the prototype of the capital 
Omega 12, the small being merely two Omicrons joined. 
This line — in prosody is still used to denote a long syllable ; 
and as we find it in this way appended to Omicron, is it not 
almost matter of certainty that the same system of writing 
was carried out in some way or another, and that the Greeks 
annexed the same, or an equivalent mark, to Alpha, lota, 
Upsilon, and Epsilon, before the introduction of Eta, to 
express a long syllable ? 

5. Prosody, or a knowledge of long and short syllables, 
may by possibility be the most important branch of human 
learning, as it is conceived to be at Eton, and our English 
Universities, and have a more powerful tendency than any 
other to refine the taste, invigorate the understanding, and 
improve the heart. In the present paragraph I will suppose 
that it is so. But if it be so, it is impossible that we can 
have too much of it, and it ought to be to us what the words 
of the law were to the Jews : " And thou shalt teach them 
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when 
thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, 
and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deu- 
teronomy, 6, 7.) The mode of teaching, however, is by no 
means a matter of indifference, and, prima facie, one cannot 
but be disposed to doubt if the best method of acquiring a 
thorough knowledge of the languages of ancient Greece and 
Italy, is by dispensing with those aids which the Greeks, 
Etruscans, and Romans, thought necessary. They, as we 
have just seen, wrote in a mode, so as that the quantity of 
every syllable was obvious at the first glance. We print their 
works in such a way, that Greek books convey little, and 
Latin absolutely no information to the eye as to the quantity 
of the syllables; and in reading we are referred first to a 
Lexicon for the meaning of the word, and secondly to a The- 
saurus, or Gradus, for the much more important information 
of the quantity of the syllables. To the Greeks, Etruscans, 



430 ON INITIAL ASPIRATES. 

and Romans, these languages were living languages, and all 
the sounds from their fellow creatures around them tended to 
refresh the memory and augment its stock of knowledge. To 
us they are dead languages which we rarely hear spoken, and 
which, when we do, convey hardly any information as to the 
quantity of the syllables, as we do not even attempt to give 
the time of the syllable, and never distinguish a long from a 
short one, except by laying the accent on it. Without omit- 
ting one jot or tittle from our present manner of printing, 
a simple dot, of the nature of the Hebrew Dagesh subjoined 
to a vowel, might denote that it is doubled, or long ; so that 
on opening a page of any classic, Greek, or Latin, we should 
be instantly aware of the quantity of all the syllables it con- 
tains. 

6. Though it should be admitted that the acquirement 
of languages is the best possible elementary discipline for a 
young mind, and also that the Greek and Latin languages 
contain some of the most polished and perfect models in al- 
most every species of composition that the world has ever seen, 
— in epic poetry, in the drama, in oratory, and in history; — 
and, further, that the study of the ancient classics could not 
be neglected without serious injury to the cause of taste, of 
knowledge, and perhaps even of liberty, the love of which, 
the animated struggles related in the Greek and Roman 
pages have most assuredly a strong tendency to foster, — still 
all these concessions in favour of classical literature consti- 
tute no sort of apology for the mode in which it is studied, 
or the exclusive spirit in which it is pursued. If we did not 
affect to understand the languages of Greece and Rome 
better than they were understood by the Greeks and Romans 
themselves, by persisting in writing them in so imperfect 
a manner as to entail the necessity of committing to memory 
the quantity of every syllable in both languages, all the verse- 
making at Eton might be dispensed with, and the time so 
misspent be most advantageously devoted to acquiring an 
intimate knowledge of the principal authors of Greece and 
Rome, to penetrating to their inmost sense, instead of resting 
satisfied with empty sounds. There would be ample time for 



THE iEOLIC DIGAMMA. 431 

this, and a great deal more, if we once relinquished the 
imagined necessity of getting by heart the quantity of all 
the syllables of all the words in Stephens's Thesaurus and 
Facciolati's Lexicon. The years usually spent at Eton and 
our other great schools would suffice not only for Greek and 
Latin but for other languages. To mention no others, the 
Arabic is the key to the great family of the Shemitic lan- 
guages, — one of those languages being the Hebrew, the 
original of the Old Testament, and another the Syriac which 
contains perhaps the best translation of the New Testament 
in existence. The imperfection of our present system of 
University education, in not making a knowledge of Hebrew 
an indispensable condition to ordination, has been long felt 
and acknowledged. And what the Arabic is to the theo- 
logian the Sanskrit is, in some measure, to the man destined 
for active life. It is universally acknowledged to be the 
basis of all the languages of India, — a country which contains 
twice or thrice as many millions of English subjects as Great 
Britain, and opens an unbounded field for the exertions of 
manufacturers, merchants, soldiers, diplomatists, legislators, 
and statesmen. If languages so copious in themselves as the 
Arabic and the Sanskrit were included in the usual course 
of an English academical education, not only would new 
lights be reflected on the Greek and Latin, and an un- 
bounded field for analogies and comparisons be opened, but 
materials would be provided for that insight into the nature 
of language itself, to which the philosopher looks forward as 
the most secure and solid basis of the great fabric of human 
knowledge. 



THE END. 



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